Chatter contexts

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for selecting updates to associated records to publish on an information feed in an on-demand database service environment. In one implementation, a selection input is received. The selection input may indicate a first one of a plurality of user account contexts associated with a user account in a feed system. The first one of the plurality of user account contexts may be associated with a set of feed items stored in the feed system. Based on the selection input indicating the first one of a plurality of user account contexts, one or more candidate feed items for presentation in an information feed may be determined. The information feed may be capable of being displayed on a display device.

PRIORITY AND RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims priority to co-pending and commonly assignedU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/447,795, titled “ChatterProfiles,” by Dunn et al., filed on Mar. 1, 2011 (Attorney Docket No.623PROV), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material,which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates generally to providing on-demandservices in a network using a database system and, more specifically, totechniques for publishing updates to records in the database system overthe network.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, software, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, software can be accessible over the Internetrather than installed locally on in-house computer systems. Cloudcomputing typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamicallyscalable and often virtualized resources. Technological details can beabstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, orcontrol over, the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supportsthem.

Database resources, including a network feed, can be provided in a cloudcomputing context. However, using conventional database managementtechniques, it is difficult to view and track the activity of otherusers of the network feed. For example, a particular user, such as asalesperson, may post information that is important to the user's boss.However, because the user's boss follows many users, the particularuser's information may not be seen as new information when it is addedto the boss's network feed. To ensure the data is seen by the boss, theuser can create a report about what the user has done and send it to theboss, but such reports may be inefficient, not timely, and incomplete.Also, it may be difficult to identify other users who might benefit fromthe information in the report.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and process operations for thedisclosed inventive systems, apparatus, and methods for providingcontextual access to an information feed in an on-demand databaseservice environment. These drawings in no way limit any changes in formand detail that may be made by one skilled in the art without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an example of an environment 10wherein an on-demand database service might be used.

FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an implementation of elements ofFIG. 1A and various possible interconnections between these elements.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram 200 illustrating architectural componentsof an on-demand service environment according to one implementation.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram further illustrating architecturalcomponents of an on-demand service environment according to oneimplementation.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method 300 for tracking updates to a recordstored in a database system according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of components of a database system performinga method for tracking an update to a record according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 500 for tracking actions of a user ofa database system according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method 600 for creating a news feed frommessages created by a user about a record or another user according toone or more implementations.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according to oneor more implementations.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 9A shows a plurality of tables that may be used in tracking eventsand creating feeds according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart illustrating a method 900 for automaticallysubscribing a user to an object in a database system according toimplementations.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method 1000 for saving information to feedtracking tables according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method 1100 for reading a feed item as partof generating a feed for display according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method 1200 for reading a feed item of aprofile feed for display according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a method 1300 of storing event information forefficient generation of feed items to display in a feed according to oneor more implementations.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method 1400 for creating a custom feed forusers of a database system using filtering criteria according to one ormore implementations.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a method 1500 for creating a user accountcontext according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method 1600 for viewing a user accountcontext according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a method 1700 for publishing an informationupdate within a user account context according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a method 1800 for generating an informationfeed according to one or more implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, and methods according to the disclosedimplementations are described in this section. These examples are beingprovided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of thedisclosed implementations. It will thus be apparent to one skilled inthe art that implementations may be practiced without some or all ofthese specific details. In other instances, well known process/methodsteps have not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring implementations. Other applications are possible, such thatthe following examples should not be taken as definitive or limitingeither in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the blocks of methods shownand described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer blocks than are indicated. In some implementations, blocksdescribed herein as separate blocks may be combined. Conversely, whatmay be described herein as a single block may be implemented in multipleblocks.

Various implementations described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products forfacilitating contextual access to an information feed in an on-demanddatabase service environment. In some implementations, the disclosedmethods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products may beconfigured or designed for use in a multi-tenant database environment.

The “following” of a database record, as described in greater detailbelow, allows a user to track the progress of that record. Updates tothe record, also referred to herein as changes, can occur and be notedon an information feed such as the record feed or the news feed of auser subscribed to the record. With the disclosed implementations,updates are often presented as an item or entry in the feed, but canalso be presented as a collection of individual of items. Types of suchupdates can include field changes in a data record, posts such asexplicit text or characters submitted by a user, status updates,uploaded files, and links to other data or records. Also, one type ofupdate is the creation of the record itself. Updates can also begroup-related, e.g., a change to group status information for a group ofwhich the user is a member. Users following the record are capable ofviewing updates on the user's feed.

The disclosed implementations provide for selectively viewing, curating,filtering, and managing items in one or more information feeds. In someimplementations, an information feed may be divided into separate, moremanageable pieces that each may be specific to one or more contexts.Implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, and methods arealso configured to selectively create posts in a social networkingsystem such that permission to view the created posts is limited tocertain user accounts.

Social networking and business networking feeds (“feeds”) have becomepopular ways for users and friends to connect and collaborate. However,a typical networking feed can become overpopulated with irrelevantand/or redundant information. A user often needs to sort through anumber of messages and posts to find information relevant to aparticular matter or their particular role in an organization. In someimplementations, techniques described herein allow users to betteraccess and display relevant information in their networking feed.

In some implementations, a system hosting a feed provides mechanismsthat allow a user to create feed contexts associated with a useraccount. A user account context is a system-provided mechanism that mayallow a user to selectively group items (e.g., records, users, objects)that the user would like to follow. Different user account contexts maybe created for different roles associated with the user account withinan organization. For example, in a corporate feed environment (likeChatter), a user may create a context for a specific sales account,ACME, Inc. The ACME, Inc. context may be setup to follow items relatedto ACME, Inc. (e.g. ACME sales contacts, current contracts, other salesreps involved with the account, leads, opportunities, etc.). Then, whenthe user selects the ACME, Inc. context, items in the feed related toACME, Inc. are displayed at the top of the information feed.Alternately, only ACME, Inc. items may be displayed when the ACME, Inc.context is selected. Other techniques and mechanisms may also be used tohighlight or prominently display context feed items.

In some implementations, a user account context can extend beyond just acorporate environment. A user account context can extend to any socialmedia role as well. For example, in a social networking environment(such as Facebook), a user often has different types of friendsfollowing them. These different types or groups of friends providedifferent audiences for different posts. For instance, most people havefriends from different groups they associate with in life, such as theirco-workers, their drinking buddies, their friends from church, and theirfamily. In other words, in a social networking environment, there aremultiple audiences for a post or feed item. However, not every post ismeant for every audience. For instance, if a user wants to post acomment critical of the user's job, the user may want to excludeco-workers from seeing the post.

In some implementations, a user account context mechanism allows a userto define a user account context for different audiences. For example, auser can define one context that includes the user's friends, anothercontext for the user's family, and another context that excludes theuser's co-workers. Then, when the user wants to post an opinion criticalof the user's job, the user can post the opinion under the user accountcontext that excludes co-workers.

In some implementations, a single user account may be associated withvarious numbers of user account contexts. For instance, a user accountmay have a “personal” and a “work-related” user account context.

In some implementations, items within the social networking system(e.g., users, groups, records, objects), may be associated with varioususer account contexts. For instance, a user may choose to link aparticular user account to both a “work-related” user account contextand a “personal” user account context because the user accountcorresponds to a user who is both a co-worker and a friend.

In some implementations, a user interface control is displayed as partof the user interface with which the user interacts on a feed. The userinterface control allows the user to interact with the feed contextmechanism. For example, the user may toggle between contexts to viewposts or to create a post related to a specific context. This feedmechanism toggle control can be any user interface control, such as adrop-down menu, a selectable list, or a radio button.

In some implementations, one or more user account contexts are stored inconnection with a user ID. The user account contexts may be stored astext files, as entries in a database, as entries in a separate databasetable associated with a user account, or according to some other storagemechanism. For example, in a multi-tenant database system, a useraccount context may be stored in an organization's metadata. Each tenantin a multi-tenant database environment may have associated metadata thatdefines the tenant's users, its custom objects, its users' access toobjects in the database, and other such information. As noted, useraccount contexts may be stored as a table associated with a tenant, as aseparate table associated with each individual user account, oraccording to some other storage scheme.

In some implementations, each user account context is independent of theother user account contexts. Alternately, one user account context filemay be used to manage other user account contexts. In this case, filterson the feed context file may define who, what, and how posts aredisplayed in a feed. For example, when using a product manager context,feed posts related to the product manager role may be displayed at thetop of the feed, or as the only posts in the feed.

In some implementations, a user account context may be portable. Aportable user account context can be saved and/or exported so it can beused in conjunction with other user accounts. For instance, a manager ina company may want each of his direct reports to follow specific people,records, objects, groups, and other items. In this example, the managercould create a context for his direct reports and export it so the otherusers can access it in conjunction with their user accounts.

In some implementations, exporting a user account context file generatesa text file, a CSV file, HTML file, XML file, or some other structuredfile. For example, the user account context file may be exported andsaved as a separate file to a local drive. The file may then be emailedor otherwise sent to other users. Once received, the other users canimport the user account context into their feed environment.

In some implementations, when a user account context is exported, acorresponding table or other database structure is shared with specifiedusers. In other words, additional users are granted access to the tablein the social networking/database environment. In this way, a user cancreate a context and then export it so other users can use it either asa template or as a separate context.

In some implementations, tags can be included in the user accountcontext to enable a user to automatically view and/or follow certaintags, posts, and/or other user accounts. For example, in some feedenvironments, users can include hash tags with their posts. In thissystem, a user account context can include lists of hash tags to befollowed.

In some implementations, as part of the user account context, a user cancustomize and rank the importance of records, users, and objects thatthe user is following. For instance, a user may assign a certain rank orweight to certain user accounts, groups, posts, hash tags, and otheritems or filters within the social networking system. Then, feed itemsmay be displayed based on the rankings. In one example, a user in hisrole as a software developer may assign higher ranking values to histeam members so when he selects the software developer user accountcontext, items related to his software development job (such as itemsposted by the identified team members) appear at the top of his feed.Alternatively, the user may assign a lower ranking to his team membersin conjunction with a “personal” user account context. In this profile,the user may rank his friends and family members higher than hiscoworkers. Accordingly, posts from the user's friends and family membersmay be displayed more prominently when the personal user account contextis selected than when another user account context is selected. Byranking the same items differently in different user account contexts,the user can customize the relative importance of items. By doing so,the user can affect how, when, and where such items are displayed in aninformation feed.

In some implementations, a user account context created in a corporateenvironment may be created and saved, even after the original userleaves the company. When the user's replacement arrives, the user'sreplacement may already have a user account context in place. Similarly,a template user account context may be created for use by many differentusers who share similar positions within the company. For example, atemplate user account context may be created for sales persons within anorganization.

In some implementations, feed items displayed in accordance with a useraccount context may be displayed more prominently than other feed items.Techniques for displaying feed items prominently may include, but arenot limited to: displaying items at the top of an information feed,displaying feed items in a bright or noticeable color, displayinginsignia such as stars or tags in association with feed items, or usingany other mechanism to draw attention to a post or feed item.

These and other implementations may be implemented by various types ofhardware, software, firmware, etc. For example, some implementations maybe implemented, at least in part, by machine-readable media that includeprogram instructions, state information, etc., for performing variousservices and operations described herein. Examples of programinstructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler,and files containing higher-level code that may be executed by thecomputer using an interpreter. Examples of machine-readable mediainclude, but are not limited to, magnetic media such as hard disks,floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks;magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store program instructions, such as read-only memorydevices (“ROM”) and random access memory (“RAM”). These and otherfeatures and benefits of the disclosed implementations will be describedin more detail below with reference to the associated drawings.

The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems inwhich various elements of hardware and software of the database systemmay be shared by one or more customers. For example, a given applicationserver may simultaneously process requests for a great number ofcustomers, and a given database table may store rows for a potentiallymuch greater number of customers. The term “query plan” generally refersto one or more steps used to access information in a database system.

A “user profile” or “user's profile” is generally configured to storeand maintain data about the user of the database system. The data caninclude general information, such as title, phone number, a photo, abiographical summary, and a status (e.g., text describing what the useris currently doing). As mentioned below, the data can include messagescreated by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, a user istypically associated with a particular tenant. For example, a user couldbe a salesperson of a company that is a tenant of the database systemthat provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity, such as an instanceof a data object created by a user of the database service, for example,about a particular (actual or potential) business relationship orproject. The data object can have a data structure defined by thedatabase service (a standard object) or defined by a subscriber (customobject). For example, a record can be for a business partner orpotential business partner (e.g. a client, vendor, distributor, etc.) ofthe user, and can include an entire company, subsidiaries, or contactsat the company. As another example, a record can be a project that theuser is working on, such as an opportunity (e.g. a possible sale) withan existing partner, or a project that the user is trying to get. In oneimplementation implementing a multi-tenant database, all of the recordsfor the tenants have an identifier stored in a common table. A recordhas data fields that are defined by the structure of the object (e.g.fields of certain data types and purposes). A record can also havecustom fields defined by a user. A field can be another record orinclude links thereto, thereby providing a parent-child relationshipbetween the records.

The terms “feed” and “information feed” generally include a combination(e.g. a list) of feed items or entries with various types of informationand data. Such feed items can be stored and maintained in one or moredatabase tables, e.g., as rows in the table(s), that can be accessed toretrieve relevant information to be presented as part of a displayedfeed. The term “feed item” (or feed element) refers to information abouta user (“profile feed”) of the database or about a record (“recordfeed”) in the database. A profile feed and a record feed are examples ofdifferent information feeds. A user following the user or record canreceive the associated feed items. In some implementations, the feeditems from all of the followed users and records can be combined into asingle feed for the user.

As examples, a feed item can be a message, such as a user-generated postof text data, and a feed tracked update to a record or profile, such asa change to a field of the record. A feed can be a combination ofmessages and feed tracked updates. Messages include text created by auser, and may include other data as well. Examples of messages includeposts, user status updates, and comments. Messages can be created for auser's profile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile (whichcan include a number of recent posts) or a section of a record thatincludes multiple posts. The posts can be organized in chronologicalorder when displayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) as part of afeed. In contrast to a post, a user status update changes a status of auser and can be made by that user or an administrator. Other similarsections of a user's profile can also include an “About” section. Arecord can also have a status, whose update can be provided by an ownerof the record or other users having suitable write access permissions tothe record. The owner can be a single user, multiple users, or a group.In one implementation, there is only one status for a record. In oneimplementation, a comment can be made on any feed item. In anotherimplementation, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In thisimplementation, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,”generally refers to data representing an event, and can include textgenerated by the database system in response to the event, to beprovided as one or more feed items for possible inclusion in one or morefeeds. In one implementation, the data can initially be stored, and thenthe database system can later use the data to create text for describingthe event. Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update,as used herein. In various implementations, an event can be an update ofa record and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Messages and feed updates can be stored as afield or child object of the record. For example, the feed can be storedas a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some aspects, the groupmay be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, or bymembership. In one implementation, a “group feed” includes any feed itemabout any user in a group. In another implementation, the group feedincludes feed items that are about the group as a whole. In oneimplementation, the feed items for a group are only posts and comments.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database, such as feed trackedupdates about changes to the record and posts made by users about therecord. An entity feed can be composed of any type of feed item. Such afeed can be displayed on a page (e.g. a web page) associated with therecord (e.g. a home page of the record). As used herein, a “profilefeed” is a feed of feed items about a particular user. In oneimplementation, the feed items for a profile feed are posts and commentsthat other users make about or send to the particular user, and statusupdates made by the user. Such a profile feed can be displayed on a pageassociated with the particular user. In another implementation, feeditems in a profile feed could include posts made by the particular userand feed tracked changes (feed tracked updates) initiated based onactions of the particular user.

I. General Overview

Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided for implementing enterpriselevel social and business information networking. Such implementationscan provide more efficient use of a database system. For instance, auser of a database system may not easily know when important informationin the database has changed, e.g., about a project or client.Implementations can provide feed tracked updates about such changes andother events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record (e.g. an opportunity suchas a possible sale of 1000 computers). Once the record update has beenmade, a feed tracked update about the record update can thenautomatically be sent (e.g. in a feed) to anyone subscribing to theopportunity or to the user. Thus, the user does not need to contact amanager regarding the change in the opportunity, since the feed trackedupdate about the update is sent via a feed right to the manager's feedpage (or other page).

Next, mechanisms and methods for providing systems implementingenterprise level social and business information networking will bedescribed with reference to example implementations. First, an overviewof an example database system is described, and then examples oftracking events for a record, actions of a user, and messages about auser or record are described. Various implementations about the datastructure of feeds, customizing feeds, user selection of records andusers to follow, generating feeds, and displaying feeds are alsodescribed.

II. System Overview

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an environment 10 wherein anon-demand database service might be used. Environment 10 may includeuser systems 12, network 14, system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of the componentslisted and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to,those listed above.

Environment 10 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 12 may be any machine or system that is used by auser to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems12 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. Asillustrated in FIG. 1A (and in more detail in FIG. 1B) user systems 12might interact via a network 14 with an on-demand database service,which is system 16.

An on-demand database service, such as system 16, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 16” and “system 16” willbe used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or moredatabase objects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In an implementation, on-demanddatabase service 16 may include an application platform 18 that enablescreation, managing and executing one or more applications developed bythe provider of the on-demand database service, users accessing theon-demand database service via user systems 12, or third partyapplication developers accessing the on-demand database service via usersystems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, that user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that the present implementations might use are not so limited,although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 16 and network 14, but othertechniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations,the interface between system 16 and network 14 includes load sharingfunctionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balanceloads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality ofservers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, eachof the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data; however, otheralternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 1A, implements aweb-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, inone implementation, system 16 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 12 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain implementations, system 16 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 16 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 18, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIG. 1A, includinga network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant data storage 22for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25 accessibleto system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26 forimplementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28 forexecuting MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such asrunning applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user interface devices,such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen orthe like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) providedby the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.)in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by system 16 or other systems or servers. For example, the userinterface device can be used to access data and applications hosted bysystem 16, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow auser to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented to a user.As discussed above, implementations are suitable for use with theInternet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks.However, it should be understood that other networks can be used insteadof the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 17, which may include an Intel Pentium®processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computerprogram product implementation includes a machine-readable storagemedium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be usedto program a computer to perform any of the processes of theimplementations described herein. Computer code for operating andconfiguring system 16 to intercommunicate and to process webpages,applications and other data and media content as described herein arepreferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire programcode, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile ornon-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM orRAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such asany type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs,digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, andmagneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems(including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or devicesuitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entireprogram code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloadedfrom a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over theInternet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted overany other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g.,extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols(e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It willalso be appreciated that computer code for implementing implementationsof the present invention can be implemented in any programming languagethat can be executed on a client system and/or server or server systemsuch as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™,JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, andmany other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to one implementation, each system 16 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenants of system16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keep eachtenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than one MTSis used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., ina server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may bedistributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or moreservers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). Asused herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 1B also illustrates environment 10. However, in FIG. 1B elements ofsystem 16 and various interconnections in an implementation are furtherillustrated. FIG. 1B shows that user system 12 may include processorsystem 12A, memory system 12B, input system 12C, and output system 12D.FIG. 1B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG. 1B also shows that system16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenant data 23, system datastorage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30, Application ProgramInterface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36, application setupmechanism 38, applications servers 1001-100N, system process space 102,tenant process spaces 104, tenant management process space 110, tenantstorage area 112, user storage 114, and application metadata 116. Inother implementations, environment 10 may not have the same elements asthose listed above and/or may have other elements instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 1A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 1B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 1A)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 100, an applicationplatform 18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Alsoshown is system process space 102, including individual tenant processspaces 104 and a tenant management process space 110. Each applicationserver 100 may be configured to tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage areas 112, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage area 112, user storage 114 and application metadata 116might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage114. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage area 112. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle| databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 104 managed by tenant management process 110 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application60/828,192 entitled, PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOREXTENDING APIS TO EXECUTE IN CONJUNCTION WITH DATABASE APIS, by CraigWeissman, filed Oct. 4, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety and for all purposes. Invocations to applications may bedetected by one or more system processes, which manage retrievingapplication metadata 116 for the subscriber making the invocation andexecuting the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 100 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 1001might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 100N-1 might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 100N might be coupled by yet a differentnetwork connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between applicationservers 100 and the database system. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used tooptimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 100. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 100 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 100. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 100. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 100, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 100. In thismanner, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16 handles storage of,and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparateusers and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 100 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 100 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to implementations of the present invention. It shouldbe understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeablyherein. Each table generally contains one or more data categorieslogically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each rowor record of a table contains an instance of data for each categorydefined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a tablethat describes a customer with fields for basic contact information suchas name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table mightdescribe a purchase order, including fields for information such ascustomer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant databasesystems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by alltenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities mightinclude tables for Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity data, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,039 byWeissman et al., filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities andFields in a Multi-Tenant Database System”, and which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram 200 illustrating architectural componentsof an on-demand service environment, in accordance with oneimplementation.

A client machine located in the cloud 204 (or Internet) may communicatewith the on-demand service environment via one or more edge routers 208and 212. The edge routers may communicate with one or more core switches220 and 224 via firewall 216. The core switches may communicate with aload balancer 228, which may distribute server load over different pods,such as the pods 240 and 244. The pods 240 and 244, which may eachinclude one or more servers and/or other computing resources, mayperform data processing and other operations used to provide on-demandservices. Communication with the pods may be conducted via pod switches232 and 236. Components of the on-demand service environment maycommunicate with a database storage system 256 via a database firewall248 and a database switch 252.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, accessing an on-demand service environmentmay involve communications transmitted among a variety of differenthardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demand serviceenvironment 200 is a simplified representation of an actual on-demandservice environment. For example, while only one or two devices of eachtype are shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, some implementations of an on-demandservice environment may include anywhere from one to many devices ofeach type. Also, the on-demand service environment need not include eachdevice shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, or may include additional devices notshown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand serviceenvironment 200 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 204 is intended to refer to a data network or plurality ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 204 may communicate with the on-demand service environment toaccess services provided by the on-demand service environment. Forexample, client machines may access the on-demand service environment toretrieve, store, edit, and/or process information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 208 and 212 route packetsbetween the cloud 204 and other components of the on-demand serviceenvironment 200. The edge routers 208 and 212 may employ the BorderGateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol of theInternet. The edge routers 208 and 212 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’ which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 216 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand service environment 200 from Internettraffic. The firewall 216 may block, permit, or deny access to the innercomponents of the on-demand service environment 200 based upon a set ofrules and other criteria. The firewall 216 may act as one or more of apacket filter, an application gateway, a stateful filter, a proxyserver, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 220 and 224 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand service environment200. The core switches 220 and 224 may be configured as network bridgesthat quickly route data between different components within theon-demand service environment. In some implementations, the use of twoor more core switches 220 and 224 may provide redundancy and/or reducedlatency.

In some implementations, the pods 240 and 244 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand serviceenvironment. Each pod may include various types of hardware and/orsoftware computing resources. An example of the pod architecture isdiscussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 2B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 240 and 244 maybe conducted via the pod switches 232 and 236. The pod switches 232 and236 may facilitate communication between the pods 240 and 244 and clientmachines located in the cloud 204, for example via core switches 220 and224. Also, the pod switches 232 and 236 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 240 and 244 and the database storage 256.

In some implementations, the load balancer 228 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 240 and 244. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 228 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 256 may beguarded by a database firewall 248. The database firewall 248 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 248 may protect thedatabase storage 256 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 248 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 248 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 248 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage system256 may be conducted via the database switch 252. The multi-tenantdatabase system 256 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 252 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand service environment (e.g., the pods 240 and 244) to thecorrect components within the database storage system 256.

In some implementations, the database storage system 256 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase system may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. An on-demand databasesystem is discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram illustrating the architecture of the pod244, in accordance with one implementation. The pod 244 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand service environment 200.

In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 244 includes one or more content batchservers 264, content search servers 268, query servers 272, file forceservers 276, access control system (ACS) servers 280, batch servers 284,and app servers 288. Also, the pod 244 includes database instances 290,quick file systems (QFS) 292, and indexers 294. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 244 may be transmitted via the switch 236.

In some implementations, the application servers 288 may include ahardware and/or software framework dedicated to the execution ofprocedures (e.g., programs, routines, scripts) for supporting theconstruction of applications provided by the on-demand serviceenvironment 200 via the pod 244. Some such procedures may includeoperations for providing the services described herein, such asperforming the methods/processes described below with reference to FIGS.15-17. In alternative implementations, two or more app servers 288 maybe included and cooperate to perform such methods, or one or more otherservers in FIG. 2B can be configured to perform the disclosed methodsdescribed below.

The content batch servers 264 may requests internal to the pod. Theserequests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particular customer.For example, the content batch servers 264 may handle requests relatedto log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 268 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 268may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demandservice environment.

The Fileforce servers 276 may manage requests information stored in theFileforce storage 278. The Fileforce storage 278 may store informationsuch as documents, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managingrequests for information using the Fileforce servers 276, the imagefootprint on the database may be reduced.

The query servers 272 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 272 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 288 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 296 located outside the pod.

The pod 244 may share a database instance 290 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 244 mayrequire various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 280 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 284 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers284 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers288, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 292 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 244. The QFS 292 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 268 and/or indexers294 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 296 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 272 may communicatewith the NFS 296 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 244. The NFS 296 may allow servers located in the pod 244 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 222 may betransmitted to the NFS 296 via the load balancer 220, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand service environment. The NFS 296 may also communicate with theQFS 292 to update the information stored on the NFS 296 and/or toprovide information to the QFS 292 for use by servers located within thepod 244.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 290. The database instance 290 may transmit information to theQFS 292. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 244 without requiring an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 294. Indexer 294 may provide an index of information availablein the database 290 and/or QFS 292. The index information may beprovided to file force servers 276 and/or the QFS 292.

III. Tracking Updates to a Record Stored in a Database

As multiple users might be able to change the data of a record, it canbe useful for certain users to be notified when a record is updated.Also, even if a user does not have authority to change a record, theuser still might want to know when there is an update. For example, avendor may negotiate a new price with a salesperson of company X, wherethe salesperson is a user associated with tenant X. As part of creatinga new invoice or for accounting purposes, the salesperson can change theprice saved in the database. It may be important for co-workers to knowthat the price has changed. The salesperson could send an e-mail tocertain people, but this is onerous and the salesperson might not e-mailall of the people who need to know or want to know. Accordingly,implementations can inform others (e.g. co-workers) who want to knowabout an update to a record automatically.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method 300 for tracking updates to a recordstored in a database system according to implementations. In someimplementations, method 300 (and other methods described herein) may beimplemented at least partially with multi-tenant database system 16,e.g., by one or more processors configured to receive or retrieveinformation, process the information, store results, and the transmitthe results. In other implementations, method 300 may be implemented atleast partially with a single tenant database system. In variousimplementations, steps may be omitted, combined, or split intoadditional steps for method 300, as well as for other methods describedherein.

In step 310, the database system receives a request to update a firstrecord. In one implementation, the request is received from a firstuser. For example, a user may be accessing a page associated with thefirst record, and may change a displayed field and hit save. In anotherimplementation, the database system can automatically create therequest. For instance, the database system can create the request inresponse to another event, e.g., a request to change a field could besent periodically at a particular date and/or time of day, or a changeto another field or object. The database system can obtain a new valuebased on other fields of a record and/or based on parameters in thesystem.

The request for the update of a field of a record is an example of anevent associated with the first record for which a feed tracked updatemay be created. In other implementations, the database system canidentify other events besides updates to fields of a record. Forexample, an event can be a submission of approval to change a field.Such an event can also have an associated field (e.g., a field showing astatus of whether a change has been submitted). Other examples of eventscan include creation of a record, deletion of a record, converting arecord from one type to another (e.g. converting a lead to anopportunity), closing a record (e.g. a case type record), andpotentially any state change of a record—any of which could include afield change associated with the state change. Any of these eventsupdate the record whether by changing a field of the record, a state ofthe record, or some other characteristic or property of the record. Inone implementation, a list of supported events for creating a feedtracked update can be maintained within the database system, e.g., at aserver or in a database.

In step 320, the database system writes new data to the first record. Inone implementation, the new data may include a new value that replacesold data. For example, a field is updated with a new value. In anotherimplementation, the new data can be a value for a field that did notcontain data before. In yet another implementation, the new data couldbe a flag, e.g., for a status of the record, which can be stored as afield of the record.

In some implementations, a “field” can also include records that arechild objects of the first record. A child object itself can includefurther fields. Thus, if a field of a child object is updated with a newvalue, the parent record also can be considered to have a field changed.In one example, a field could be a list of related child objects, alsocalled a related list.

In step 330, a feed tracked update is generated about the update to therecord. In one implementation, the feed tracked update is created inparts for assembling later into a display version. For example, evententries can be created and tracked in one table, and changed fieldentries can be tracked in another table that is cross-referenced withthe first table. More specifics of such implementations are providedlater, e.g., with respect to FIG. 9A. In another implementation, thefeed tracked update is automatically generated by the database system.The feed tracked update can convey in words that the first record hasbeen updated and provide details about what was updated in the recordand who performed the update. In some implementations, a feed trackedupdate is generated for only certain types of event and/or updatesassociated with the first record.

In one implementation, a tenant (e.g. through an administrator) canconfigure the database system to create (enable) feed tracked updatesonly for certain types of records. For example, an administrator canspecify that records of type Account and Opportunity are enabled. Whenan update (or other event) is received for the enabled record type, thena feed tracked update would be generated. In another implementation, atenant can also specify the fields of a record whose changes are to betracked, and for which feed tracked updates are created. In one aspect,a maximum number of fields can be specified for tracking, and mayinclude custom fields. In one implementation, the type of change canalso be specified, for example, that the value change of a field isrequired to be larger than a threshold (e.g. an absolute amount or apercentage change). In yet another implementation, a tenant can specifywhich events are to cause a generation of a feed tracked update. Also,in one implementation, individual users can specify configurationsspecific to them, which can create custom feeds as described in moredetail below.

In one implementation, changes to fields of a child object are nottracked to create feed tracked updates for the parent record. In anotherimplementation, the changes to fields of a child object can be trackedto create feed tracked updates for the parent record. For example, achild object of the parent type can be specified for tracking, andcertain fields of the child object can be specified for tracking. Asanother example, if the child object is of a type specified fortracking, then a tracked change for the child object is propagated toparent records of the child object.

In step 340, the feed tracked update is added to a feed for the firstrecord. In one implementation, adding the feed tracked update to a feedcan include adding events to a table (which may be specific to a recordor be for all or a group of objects), where a display version of a feedtracked update can be performed dynamically when a user requests a feedfor the first record. In another implementation, a display version of afeed tracked update can be added when a record feed is stored andmaintained for a record. As mentioned above, a feed may be maintainedfor only certain records. In one implementation, the feed of a recordcan be stored in the database associated with the feed. For example, thefeed can be stored as a field (e.g. as a child object) of the record.Such a field can store a pointer to the text to be displayed for thefeed tracked update.

In some implementations, only the current feed tracked update (or othercurrent feed item) may be kept or temporarily stored, e.g., in sometemporary memory structure. For example, a feed tracked update for onlya most recent change to any particular field is kept. In otherimplementations, many previous feed tracked updates may be kept in thefeed. A time and/or date for each feed tracked update can be tracked.Herein, a feed of a record is also referred to as an entity feed, as arecord is an instance of a particular entity object of the database.

In step 350, followers of the first record can be identified. A followeris a user following (subscribing to a feed of) the first record. In oneimplementation, when a user requests a feed of a particular record suchan identification need not be done. In another implementation where arecord feed is pushed to a user (e.g. as part of a news feed), then theuser can be identified as a follower of the first record. Accordingly,this step can be the identification of records and other objects beingfollowed by a particular user.

In one implementation, the database system can store a list of thefollowers for a particular record. In various implementations, the listcan be stored with the first record or associated with the record usingan identifier (e.g. a pointer) to retrieve the list. For example, thelist can be stored in a field of the first record. In anotherimplementation, a list of the records that a user is following is used.In one implementation, the database system can have a routine that runsfor each user, where the routine polls the records in the list todetermine if a new feed tracked update has been added to a feed of therecord.

In another implementation, the routine for the user can be running atleast partially on a user device, which contacts the database to performthe polling. In step 360, in one implementation, the feed tracked updatecan be stored in a table, as described in greater detail below. When theuser opens a feed, an appropriate query is sent to one or more tables toretrieve updates to records, also described in greater detail below. Insome implementations, the feed shows feed tracked updates in reversechronological order. In one implementation, the feed tracked update ispushed to the feed of a user, e.g., by a routine that determines thefollowers for the record from a list associated with the record. Inanother implementation, the feed tracked update is pulled to a feed,e.g., by a user device. This pulling may occur when a user requests thefeed, as occurs in step 370. Thus, these actions may occur in adifferent order. The creation of the feed for a pull may be a dynamiccreation that identifies records being followed by the requesting user,generates the display version of relevant feed tracked updates fromstored information (e.g. event and field change), and adds the feedtracked updates into the feed. A feed of feed tracked updates of recordsand other objects that a user is following is also called a news feed.

In yet another implementation, the feed tracked update could be sent asan e-mail to the follower, instead of in a feed. In one implementation,e-mail alerts for events can enable people to be e-mailed when certainevents occur. In another implementation, e-mails can be sent when thereare posts on a user profile and posts on entities to which the usersubscribes. In one implementation, a user can turn on/off email alertsfor all or some events. In an implementation, a user can specify whatkind of feed tracked updates to receive about a record that the user isfollowing. For example, a user can choose to only receive feed trackedupdates about certain fields of a record that the user is following, andpotentially about what kind of update was performed (e.g. a new valueinput into a specified field, or the creation of a new field).

In step 370, a follower can access his/her news feed to see the feedtracked update. In one implementation, the user has just one news feedfor all of the records that the user is following. In one aspect, a usercan access his/her own feed by selecting a particular tab or otherobject on a page of an interface to the database system. Once selectedthe feed can be provided as a list, e.g., with an identifier (e.g. atime) or including some or all of the text of the feed tracked update.In another implementation, the user can specify how the feed trackedupdates are to be displayed and/or sent to the user. For example, a usercan specify a font for the text, a location of where the feed can beselected and displayed, amount of text to be displayed, and other textor symbols to be displayed (e.g. importance flags).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram 400 of components of a database systemperforming a method for tracking an update to a record according toimplementations. Block diagram 400 can perform implementations of method300, as well as implementations of other method described herein.

A first user 405 sends a request 1 to update record 425 in databasesystem 416. Although an update request is described, other events thatare being tracked are equally applicable. In various implementations,the request 1 can be sent via a user interface (e.g. 30 of FIG. 1B) oran application program interface (e.g. API 32). An I/O port 420 canaccommodate the signals of request 1 via any input interface, and sendthe signals to one or more processors 417. The processor 417 can analyzethe request and determine actions to be performed. Herein, any referenceto a processor 417 can refer to a specific processor or any set ofprocessors in database system 416, which can be collectively referred toas processor 417.

Processor 417 can determine an identifier for record 425, and sendcommands 2 with the new data to record database 412 to update record425. In one implementation, record database 412 is where tenant data 112is stored. The request 1 and new data commands 2 can be encapsulated ina single write transaction sent to record database 412. In oneimplementation, multiple changes to records in the database can be madein a single write transaction.

Processor 417 can also analyze request 1 to determine whether a feedtracked update is to be created, which at this point may includedetermining whether the event (e.g. a change to a particular field) isto be tracked. This determination can be based on an interaction (i.e.an exchange of data) with record database 412 and/or other databases, orbased on information stored locally (e.g. in cache or RAM) at processor417. In one implementation, a list of record types that are beingtracked can be stored. The list may be different for each tenant, e.g.as each tenant may configure the database system to their ownspecifications. Thus, if the record 425 is of a type not being tracked,then the determination of whether to create a feed tracked update canstop there.

The same list or a second list (which can be stored in a same locationor a different location) can also include the fields and/or events thatare tracked for the record types in the first list. This list can besearched to determine if the event is being tracked. A list may alsocontain information having the granularity of listing specific recordsthat are to be tracked (e.g. if a tenant can specify the particularrecords to be tracked, as opposed to just type).

As an example, processor 417 may obtain an identifier associated withrecord 425 (e.g. obtained from request 1 or database 412), potentiallyalong with a tenant identifier, and cross-reference the identifier witha list of records for which feed tracked updates are to be created.Specifically, the record identifier can be used to determine the recordtype and a list of tracked types can be searched for a match. Thespecific record may also be checked if such individual record trackingwas enabled. The name of the field to be changed can also be used tosearch a list of tracking-enabled fields. Other criteria besides fieldand events can be used to determine whether a feed tracked update iscreated, e.g., type of change in the field. If a feed tracked update isto be generated, processor 417 can then generate the feed trackedupdate.

In some implementations, a feed tracked update is created dynamicallywhen a feed (e.g. the entity feed of record 425) is requested. Thus, inone implementation, a feed tracked update can be created when a userrequests the entity feed for record 425. In this implementation, thefeed tracked update may be created (e.g. assembled), includingre-created, each time the entity feed is to be displayed to any user. Inone implementation, one or more hifeed tracked update tables can keeptrack of previous events so that the feed tracked update can bere-created.

In another implementation, a feed tracked update can be created at thetime the event occurs, and the feed tracked update can be added to alist of feed items. The list of feed items may be specific to record425, or may be an aggregate of feed items including feed items for manyrecords. Such an aggregate list can include a record identifier so thatthe feed items for the entity feed of record 425 can be easilyretrieved. For example, after the feed tracked update has beengenerated, processor 417 can add the new feed tracked update 3 to a feedof record 425. As mentioned above, in one implementation, the feed canbe stored in a field (e.g. as a child object) of record 425. In anotherimplementation, the feed can be stored in another location or in anotherdatabase, but with a link (e.g. a connecting identifier) to record 425.The feed can be organized in various ways, e.g., as a linked list, anarray, or other data structure.

A second user 430 can access the new feed tracked update 3 in variousways. In one implementation, second user 430 can send a request 4 forthe record feed. For example, second user 430 can access a home page(detail page) of the record 425 (e.g. with a query or by browsing), andthe feed can be obtained through a tab, button, or other activationobject on the page. The feed can be displayed on the screen ordownloaded.

In another implementation, processor 417 can add the new feed trackedupdate in a step 5 to a feed (e.g. a news feed) of a user that isfollowing record 425. In one implementation, processor 417 can determineeach of the followers of record 425 by accessing a list of the usersthat have been registered as followers. This determination can be donefor each new event (e.g. update 1). In another implementation, processor417 can poll (e.g. with a query) the records that second user 430 isfollowing to determine when new feed tracked updates (or other feeditems) are available. Processor 417 can use a follower profile 435 ofsecond user 430, which can contain a list of the records that the seconduser 430 is following. Such a list can be contained in other parts ofthe database as well. Second user 430 can then send a request 6 tohis/her profile 435 to obtain a feed, which contains the new feedtracked update. The user's profile 435 can be stored in a profiledatabase 414, which can be the same or different than database 412.

In some implementations, a user can define a news feed to include newfeed tracked updates from various records, which may be limited to amaximum number. In one implementation, each user has one news feed. Inanother implementation, the follower profile 435 can include thespecifications of each of the records to be followed (with the criteriafor what feed tracked updates are to be provided and how they aredisplayed), as well as the feed.

Some implementations can provide various types of record (entity) feeds.Entity Feeds can exist for records like Account, Opportunity, Case, andContact. An entity feed can tell a user about the actions that peoplehave taken on that particular record or on one its related records. Theentity feed can include who made the action, which field was changed,and the old and new values. In one implementation, entity feeds canexist on all supported records as a list that is linked to the specificrecord. For example, a feed could be stored in a field that allows lists(e.g. linked lists) or as a child object.

IV. Tracking Actions of a User

In addition to knowing about events associated with a particular record,it can be helpful for a user to know what a particular user is doing. Inparticular, it might be nice to know what the user is doing without theuser having to generate the feed tracked update (e.g. a user submittinga synopsis of what the user has done). Accordingly, implementations canautomatically track actions of a user that trigger events, and feedtracked updates can be generated for certain events.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 500 for tracking actions of a user ofa database system according to implementations. Method 500 may beperformed in addition to method 300. The methods of implementing method300, including order of steps, can also be applied to method 500 andother methods described herein. Thus, a feed can be composed of changesto a record and actions of users.

In step 510, a database system (e.g. 16) identifies an action of a firstuser. In one implementation, the action triggers an event, and the eventis identified. For example, the action of a user requesting an update toa record can be identified, where the event is receiving a request or isthe resulting update of a record. The action may thus be defined by theresulting event. In another implementation, only certain types ofactions (events) are identified. Which actions are identified can be setas a default or can be configurable by a tenant, or even configurable ata user level. In this way, processing effort can be reduced since onlysome actions are identified.

In step 520, it is determined whether the event qualifies for a feedtracked update. In one implementation, a predefined list of events (e.g.as mentioned herein) can be created so that only certain actions areidentified. In one implementation, an administrator (or other user) of atenant can specify the type of actions (events) for which a feed trackedupdate is to be generated. This step may also be performed for method300.

In step 530, a feed tracked update is generated about the action. In anexample where the action is an update of a record, the feed trackedupdate can be similar or the same as the feed tracked update created forthe record. The description can be altered though to focus on the useras opposed to the record. For example, “John D. has closed a newopportunity for account XYZ” as opposed to “an opportunity has beenclosed for account XYZ.”

In step 540, the feed tracked update is added to a profile feed of thefirst user when, e.g., the user clicks on a tab to open a page in abrowser program displaying the feed. In one implementation, a feed for aparticular user can be accessed on a page of the user's profile, in asimilar manner as a record feed can be accessed on a detail page of therecord. In another implementation, the first user may not have a profilefeed and the feed tracked update may just be stored temporarily beforeproceeding. A profile feed of a user can be stored associated with theuser's profile. This profile feed can be added to a news feed of anotheruser.

In step 550, followers of the first user are identified. In oneimplementation, a user can specify which type of actions other users canfollow. Similarly, in one implementation, a follower can select whatactions by a user the follower wants to follow. In an implementationwhere different followers follow different types of actions, which usersare followers of that user and the particular action can be identified,e.g., using various lists that track what actions and criteria are beingfollowed by a particular user. In various implementations, the followersof the first user can be identified in a similar manner as followers ofa record, as described above for step 350.

In step 560, the feed tracked update is added to a news feed of eachfollower of the first user when, e.g., the follower clicks on a tab toopen a page displaying the news feed. The feed tracked update can beadded in a similar manner as the feed items for a record feed. The newsfeed can contain feed tracked updates both about users and records. Inanother implementation, a user can specify what kind of feed trackedupdates to receive about a user that the user is following. For example,a user could specify feed tracked updates with particular keywords, ofcertain types of records, of records owned or created by certain users,particular fields, and other criteria as mentioned herein.

In step 570, a follower accesses the news feed and sees the feed trackedupdate. In one implementation, the user has just one news feed for allof the records that the user is following. In another implementation, auser can access his/her own feed (i.e. feed about his/her own actions)by selecting a particular tab or other object on a page of an interfaceto the database system. Thus, a feed can include feed tracked updatesabout what other users are doing in the database system. When a userbecomes aware of a relevant action of another user, the user can contactthe co-worker, thereby fostering teamwork.

V. Generation of a Feed Tracked Update

As described above, some implementations can generate text describingevents (e.g. updates) that have occurred for a record and actions by auser that trigger an event. A database system can be configured togenerate the feed tracked updates for various events in various ways.

A. Which Events to Generate a Feed Tracked Update

In a database system, there are various events that can be detected.However, the operator of the database system and/or a tenant may notwant to detect every possible event as this could be costly with regardsto performance. Accordingly, the operator and/or the tenant canconfigure the database system to only detect certain events. Forexample, an update of a record may be an event that is to be detected.

Out of the events that are detected, a tenant (including a specific userof the tenant) may not want a feed tracked update about each detectedevent. For example, all updates to a record may be identified at a firstlevel. Then, based on specifications of an administrator and/or aspecific user of a tenant, another level of inquiry can be made as towhether a feed tracked update is to be generated about the detectedevent. For example, the events that qualify for a feed tracked updatecan be restricted to changes for only certain fields of the record,which can differ depending on which user is receiving the feed. In oneimplementation, a database system can track whether an event qualifiesfor a feed tracked update for any user, and once the feed tracked updateis generated, it can be determined who is to receive the feed trackedupdate.

Supported events (events for which a feed tracked update is generated)can include actions for standard fields, custom fields, and standardrelated lists. Regarding standard fields, for the entity feed and theprofile feed, a standard field update can trigger a feed tracked updateto be published to that feed. In one implementation, which standardfield can create a feed tracked update can be set by an administrator tobe the same for every user. In another implementation, a user can setwhich standard fields create a feed tracked update for that user's newsfeed. Custom fields can be treated the same or differently than standardfields.

The generation of a feed item can also depend on a relationship of anobject to other objects (e.g. parent-child relationships). For example,if a child object is updated, a feed tracked update may be written to afeed of a parent of the child object. The level of relationship can beconfigured, e.g., only 1 level of separation (i.e. nograndparent-grandchild relationship). Also, in one implementation, afeed tracked update is generated only for objects above the objectsbeing updated, i.e., a feed tracked update is not written for a childwhen the parent is updated.

In some implementations, for related lists of a record, a feed trackedupdate is written to its parent record (1 level only) when the relatedlist item is added, and not when the list item is changed or deleted.For example: user A added a new opportunity XYZ for account ABC. In thismanner, entity feeds can be controlled so as not to be cluttered withfeed tracked updates about changes to their related items. Any changesto the related list item can be tracked on their own entity feed, ifthat related list item has a feed on it. In this implementation, if auser wants to see a feed of the related list item then the user cansubscribe to it. Such a subscription might be when a user cares about aspecific opportunity related to a specific account. A user can alsobrowse to that object's entity feed. Other implementations can create afeed tracked update when a related entity is changed or deleted.

In one implementation, an administrator (of the system or of a specifictenant) can define which events of which related objects are to havefeed tracked updates written about them in a parent record. In anotherimplementation, a user can define which related object events to show.In one implementation, there are two types of related lists of relatedobjects: first class lookup and second class lookup. Each of the recordsin the related lists can have a different rule for whether a feedtracked update is generated for a parent record. Each of these relatedlists can be composed as custom related lists. In variousimplementations, a custom related list can be composed of customobjects, the lists can contain a variety of records or items (e.g. notrestricted to a particular type of record or item), and can be displayedin a customized manner.

In one implementation, a first class lookup contains records of a childrecord that can exist by itself. For example, the contacts on an accountexist as a separate record and also as a child record of the account. Inanother implementation, a record in a first class lookup can have itsown feed, which can be displayed on its detail page.

In one implementation, a second class lookup can have line itemsexisting only in the context of their parent record (e.g. activities onan opportunity, contact roles on opportunity/contact). In oneimplementation, the line items are not objects themselves, and thusthere is no detail page, and no place to put a feed. In anotherimplementation, a change in a second class lookup can be reported on thefeed of the parent.

Some implementations can also create feed tracked updates for dependentfield changes. A dependent field change is a field that changes valuewhen another field changes, and thus the field has a value that isdependent on the value of the other field. For example, a dependentfield might be a sum (or other formula) that totals values in otherfields, and thus the dependent field would change when one of the fieldsbeing summed changes. Accordingly, in one implementation, a change inone field could create feed tracked updates for multiple fields. Inother implementations, feed tracked updates are not created fordependent fields.

B. How the Feed Tracked Update is Generated

After it is determined that a feed tracked update is going to begenerated, some implementations can also determine how the feed trackedupdate is generated. In one implementation, different methods can beused for different events, e.g., in a similar fashion as for theconfigurability of which events feed tracked updates are generated. Afeed tracked update can also include a description of multiple events(e.g. john changed the account status and amount).

In one implementation, the feed tracked update is a grammaticalsentence, thereby being easily understandable by a person. In anotherimplementation, the feed tracked update provides detailed informationabout the update. In various examples, an old value and new value for afield may be included in the feed tracked update, an action for theupdate may be provided (e.g. submitted for approval), and the names ofparticular users that are responsible for replying or acting on the feedtracked update may be also provided. The feed tracked update can alsohave a level of importance based on settings chosen by theadministrator, a particular user requesting an update, or by a followinguser who is to receive the feed tracked update, which fields is updated,a percentage of the change in a field, the type of event, or anycombination of these factors.

The system may have a set of heuristics for creating a feed trackedupdate from the event (e.g. a request to update). For example, thesubject may be the user, the record, or a field being added or changed.The verb can be based on the action requested by the user, which can beselected from a list of verbs (which may be provided as defaults orinput by an administrator of a tenant). In one implementation, feedtracked updates can be generic containers with formatting restrictions,

As an example of a creation of a new record, “Mark Abramowitz created anew Opportunity IBM—20,000 laptops with Amount as $3.5 M and SamPalmisano as Decision Maker.” This event can be posted to the profilefeed for Mark Abramowitz and the entity feed for record of Opportunityfor IBM—20,000 laptops. The pattern can be given by (AgentFullName)created a new (ObjectName)(RecordName) with [(FieldName) as (FieldValue)[, / and] ]* [ [added / changed /removed] (RelatedListRecordName) [as /to / as] (RelatedListRecordValue) [, / and] ]*. Similar patterns can beformed for a changed field (standard or custom) and an added childrecord to a related list.

VI. Tracking Commentary from or about a User

Some implementations can also have a user submit text, instead of thedatabase system generating a feed tracked update. As the text issubmitted by users, the text (also referred generally as messages) canbe about any topic. Thus, more information than just actions of a userand events of a record can be conveyed. In one implementation, themessages can be used to ask a question about a particular record, andusers following the record can provide responses (comments).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method 600 for creating a news feed thatincludes messages associated with a first user according toimplementations. In one implementation, method 600 can be combined withmethods 300 and 500. In one aspect, a message can be associated with thefirst user when the first user creates the message (e.g. a post orcomment about a record or another user). In another aspect, a messagecan be associated with the first user when the message is about thefirst user (e.g. posted by another user on the first user's profilefeed).

In step 610, database system receives a message (e.g. a post or status)associated with a first user. The message (e.g. a post or status update)can contain text submitted by another user or by the first user. In oneimplementation, a post is for a section of the first user's profilewhere any user can add a post, and where multiple posts can exist. Thus,a post can appear on the first user's profile and can be viewed when thefirst user's profile is visited. For a message about a record, the postcan appear on a detail page of a record. Note the message can appear inother feeds as well. In another implementation, a status update aboutthe first user can only be added by the first user. In oneimplementation, a user can only have one status message.

In step 620, the message is added to a table, as described in greaterdetail below. When the feed is opened, a query filters one or moretables to identify the first user, identify other persons that the useris following, and retrieve the message. Messages and record updates arepresented in a combined list as the feed. In this way, in oneimplementation, the message can be added to a profile feed of the firstuser, which is associated (e.g. as a related list) with the first user'sprofile. In one implementation, the posts are listed indefinitely. Inanother implementation, only the most recent posts (e.g. last 50) arekept in the profile feed. Such implementations can also be employed withfeed tracked updates. In yet another implementation, the message can beadded to a profile of the user adding the message.

In step 630, database system identifies followers of the first user. Inone implementation, the database system can identify the followers asdescribed above for method 500. In various implementations, a followercan select to follow a feed about the actions of the first user,messages about the first user, or both (potentially in a same feed).

In step 640, the message is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone implementation, the message is only added to a news feed of aparticular follower if the message matches some criteria, e.g., themessage includes a particular keyword or other criteria. In anotherimplementation, a message can be deleted by the user who created themessage. In one implementation, once deleted by the author, the messageis deleted from all feeds to which the message had been added.

In step 650, the follower accesses a news feed and sees the message. Forexample, the follower can access a news feed on the user's own profilepage. As another example, the follower can have a news feed sent tohis/her own desktop without having to first go to a home page.

In step 660, database system receives a comment about the message. Thedatabase system can add the comment to a feed of the same first user,much as the original message was added. In one implementation, thecomment can also be added to a feed of the user adding the comment. Inone implementation, users can also reply to the comment. In anotherimplementation, users can add comments to a feed tracked update, andfurther comments can be associated with the feed tracked update. In yetanother implementation, making a comment or message is not an action towhich a feed tracked update is created. Thus, the message may be theonly feed item created from such an action.

In one implementation, if a feed tracked update (or post) is deleted,its corresponding comments are deleted as well. In anotherimplementation, new comments on a feed tracked update (or post) do notupdate the feed tracked update timestamp. Also, the feed tracked updateor post can continue to be shown in a feed (profile feed, record feed,or news feed) if it has had a comment within a specified timeframe (e.g.within the last week). Otherwise, the feed tracked update (post) can beremoved in an implementation.

In some implementations, all or most feed tracked updates can becommented on. In other implementations, feed tracked updates for certainrecords (e.g. cases or ideas) are not commentable. In variousimplementations, comments can be made for any one or more records ofopportunities, accounts, contacts, leads, and custom objects.

In step 670, the comment is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone implementation, a user can make the comment within the user's newsfeed. Such a comment can propagate to the appropriate profile feed orrecord feed, and then to the news feeds of the following users. Thus,feeds can include what people are saying, as well as what they aredoing. In one aspect, feeds are a way to stay up-to-date (e.g. on users,opportunities, etc.) as well as an opportunity to reach out to yourco-workers/partners and engage them around common goals.

In some implementations, users can rate feed tracked updates or messages(including comments). A user can choose to prioritize a display of afeed so that higher rated feed items show up higher on a display. Forexample, in an implementation where comments are answers to a specificquestion, users can rate the different status posts so that a bestanswer can be identified. As another example, users are able to quicklyidentify feed items that are most important as those feed items can bedisplayed at a top of a list. The order of the feed items can be basedon an importance level (which can be determined by the database systemusing various factors, some of which are mentioned herein) and based ona rating from users. In one implementation, the rating is on a scalethat includes at least 3 values. In another implementation, the ratingis based on a binary scale.

Besides a profile for a user, a group can also be created. In variousimplementations, the group can be created based on certain criteria thatare common to the users, can be created by inviting users, or can becreated by receiving requests to join from a user. In oneimplementation, a group feed can be created, with messages being addedto the group feed when someone adds a message to the group as a whole.For example, a group page may have a section for posts. In anotherimplementation, a message can be added to a group feed when a message isadded about any one of the members. In yet another implementation, agroup feed can include feed tracked updates about actions of the groupas a whole (e.g. when an administrator changes data in a group profileor a record owned by the group), or about actions of an individualmember.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according toimplementations. As shown, a feed item 710 shows that a user has posteda document to the group object. The text “Bill Bauer has posted thedocument Competitive Insights” can be generated by the database systemin a similar manner as feed tracked updates about a record beingchanged. A feed item 720 shows a post to the group, along with comments730.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to implementations. Feed item 810shows a feed tracked update based on the event of submitting a discountfor approval. Other feed items show posts that are made to the recordand comments that are made on the posts.

VII. Infrastructure for a Feed

A. Tables Used to Create a Feed

FIG. 9A shows a plurality of tables that may be used in tracking eventsand creating feeds according to implementations. The tables of FIG. 9Amay have entries added, or potentially removed, as part of trackingevents in the database from which feed items are creates or thatcorrespond to feed items. In one implementation, each tenant has its ownset of tables that are created based on criteria provided by the tenant.

An event hifeed tracked update table 910 can provide a hifeed trackedupdate of events from which feed items are created. In one aspect, theevents are for objects that are being tracked. Thus, table 910 can storechange hifeed tracked updates for feeds, and the changes can bepersisted. In various implementations, event hifeed tracked update table910 can have columns of event ID 911, object ID 912 (also called parentID), and created by ID 913. The event ID 911 can uniquely identify aparticular event and can start at 1 (or other number or value).

Each new event can be added chronologically with a new event ID, whichmay be incremented in order. An object ID 912 can be used to track whichrecord or user's profile is being changed. For example, the object IDcan correspond to the record whose field is being changed or the userwhose feed is receiving a post. The created by ID 913 can track the userwho is performing the action that results in the event, e.g., the userthat is changing the field or that is posting a message to the profileof another user.

In some other implementations, event hifeed tracked update table 910 canhave one or more of the following variables with certain attributes:ORGANIZATION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKEDUPDATE_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), PARENT_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BYbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being a variable of type DATE,DIVISION being a NUMBER, KEY_PREFIX being CHAR(3 BYTE), and DELETEDbeing CHAR(1 BYTE). The parent ID can provide an ID of a parent objectin case the change is promulgated to the parent. The key prefix canprovide a key that is unique to a group of records, e.g. custom records(objects). The deleted variable can indicate that the feed items for theevent are deleted, and thus the feed items are not generated. In oneimplementation, the variables for each event entry or any entry in anyof the tables may not be nullable. In another implementation, allentries in the event hifeed tracked update table 910 are used to createfeed items for only one object, as specified by the object ID 912. Forexample, one feed tracked update cannot communicate updates on tworecords, such as updates of an account field and an opportunity field.

In one implementation, a name of an event can also be stored in table910. In one implementation, a tenant can specify events that they wanttracked. In an implementation, event hifeed tracked update table 910 caninclude the name of the field that changed (e.g. old and new values). Inanother implementation, the name of the field, and the values, arestored in a separate table. Other information about an event (e.g. textof comment, feed tracked update, post or status update) can be stored inevent hifeed tracked update table 910, or in other tables, as is nowdescribed.

A field change table 920 can provide a hifeed tracked update of thechanges to the fields. The columns of table 920 can include an event ID921 (which correlates to the event ID 911), an old value 922 for thefield, and the new value 923 for the field. In one implementation, if anevent changes more than one field value, then there can be an entry foreach field changed. As shown, event ID 921 has two entries for eventE37. In some other implementations, field change table 920 can have oneor more of the following variables with certain attributes:ORGANIZATION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKEDUPDATE_FIELDS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE) and identifying each entry,FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKED UPDATE_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), FIELD_KEYbeing VARCHAR2(120 BYTE), DATA_TYPE being CHAR(1 BYTE), OLDVAL_STRINGVARCHAR2 being (765 BYTE), NEWVAL_STRING being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE),OLDVAL_FIRST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE), NEWVAL_FIRST_NAME beingVARCHAR2(765 BYTE), OLDVAL_LAST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE),NEWVAL_LAST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE), OLDVAL_NUMBER being NUMBER,NEWVAL_NUMBER being NUMBER, OLDVAL_DATE being DATE, NEWVAL_DATE beingDATE, and DELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE). In one implementation, one or moreof the variables for each entry in any of the tables may be nullable.

In one implementation, the data type variable (and/or other variables)is a non-api-insertable field. In another implementation, variablevalues can be derived from the record whose field is being changed.Certain values can be transferred into typed columns old/new valuestring, old/new value number or old/new value date depending upon thederived values. In another implementation, there can exist a data typefor capturing add/deletes for child objects. The child ID can be trackedin the foreign-key column of the record. In yet another implementation,if the field name is pointing to a field in the parent entity, a fieldlevel security (FLS) can be used when a user attempts to a view arelevant feed item. Herein, security levels for objects and fields arealso called access checks and determinations of authorization. In oneaspect, the access can be for create, read, write, update, or delete ofobjects.

In one implementation, the field name (or key) can be either a fieldname of the entity or one of the values in a separate list. For example,changes that do not involve the update of an existing field (e.g. aclose or open) can have a field name specified in an enumerated list.This enumerated list can store “special” field name sentinel values fornon-update actions that a tenant wants to track. In one aspect, the APIjust surfaces these values and the caller has to check the enumeratedvalues to see if it is a special field name.

A comment table 930 can provide a hifeed tracked update of the commentsmade regarding an event, e.g., a comment on a post or a change of afield value. The columns of table 930 can include an event ID 921 (whichcorrelates to the event ID 911), the comment column 932 that stores thetext of the comment, and the time/date 933 of the comment. In oneimplementation, there can be multiple comments for each event. As shown,event ID 921 has two entries for event E37.

In some other implementations, comment table 930 can have one or more ofthe following variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_COMMENTS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE) and uniquelyidentifying each comment, PARENT_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BYbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being DATE, COMMENTS beingVARCHAR2(420 BYTE), and DELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE).

A user subscription table 940 can provide a list of the objects beingfollowed (subscribed to) by a user. In one implementation, each entryhas a user ID 941 of the user doing the following and one object ID 942corresponding to the object being followed. In one implementation, theobject being followed can be a record or a user. As shown, the user withID U819 is following object IDs O615 and O489. If user U819 is followingother objects, then additional entries may exist for user U819. Also asshown, user U719 is also following object O615. The user subscriptiontable 940 can be updated when a user adds or deletes an object that isbeing followed.

In some other implementations, comment table 940 can be composed of twotables (one for records being followed and one for users beingfollowed). One table can have one or more of the following variableswith certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE),ENTITY_SUBSCRIPTION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), PARENT_ID being CHAR(15BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being DATE, andDELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE). Another table can have one or more of thefollowing variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), USER_SUBSCRIPTIONS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), USER_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE), and CREATED_DATE beingDATE.

In one implementation, regarding a profile feed and a news feed, theseare read-only views on the event hifeed tracked update table 910specialized for these feed types. Conceptually the news feed can be asemi-join between the entity subscriptions table 940 and the eventhifeed tracked update table 910 on the object IDs 912 and 942 for theuser. In one aspect, these entities can have polymorphic parents and canbe subject to a number of restrictions detailed herein, e.g., to limitthe cost of sharing checks.

In one implementation, entity feeds are modeled in the API as a feedassociate entity (e.g. AccountFeed, CaseFeed etc). A feed associateentity includes information composed of events (e.g. event IDs) for onlyone particular record type. Such a list can limit the query (and sharingchecks) to a specific record type. In one aspect, this structuring ofthe entity feeds can make the query run faster. For example, a requestfor a feed of a particular account can include the record type ofaccount. In one implementation, an account feed table can then besearched, where the table has account record IDs and corresponding eventIDs or pointers to particular event entries in event hifeed trackedupdate table 910. Since the account feed table only contains some of therecords (not all), the query can run faster.

In one implementation, there may be objects with no events listed in theevent hifeed tracked update table 910, even though the record is beingtracked. In this case, the database service can return a resultindicating that no feed items exist.

In another implementation, tables can also exist for audit tracking,e.g., to examine that operations of the system (e.g. access checks) areperforming accurately. In one implementation, audit change-hifeedtracked update tables can be persisted (e.g. in bulk) synchronously inthe same transaction as feed events are added to event hifeed trackedupdate table 910. In another implementation, entries to the two sets oftable can be persisted in asynchronous manner (e.g. by forking a bulkupdate into a separate java thread). In one aspect, some updates to anyof the tables can get lost if the instance of the table goes down whilethe update has not yet finished. This asynchronous manner can limit animpact performance on save operations. In some implementations, a field“persistence type” (tri state: AUDIT, FEEDS or BOTH) can be added tocapture user preferences, as opposed to being hardcoded.

B. Feed Item

A feed item can represent an individual field change of a record,creation and deletion of a record, or other events being tracked for arecord or a user. In one implementation, all of the feed items in asingle transaction (event) can be grouped together and have the sameevent ID. A single transaction relates to the operations that can beperformed in a single communication with the database. In anotherimplementation where a feed is an object of the database, a feed itemcan be a child of a profile feed, news feed, or entity feed. If a feeditem is added to multiple feeds, the feed item can be replicated as achild of each feed to which the feed item is added.

In one implementation, a feed item is visible only when its parent feedis visible, which can be the same as needing read access on the feed'sparent (which can be by the type of record or by a specific record). Thefeed item's field may be only visible when allowed under field-levelsecurity (FLS). Unfortunately, this can mean that the parent feed may bevisible, but the child may not be because of FLS. Such access rules aredescribed in more detail below. In one implementation, a feed item canbe read-only. In this implementation, after being created, the feed itemcannot be changed.

In multi-currency organizations, a feed item can have an extra currencycode field. This field can give the currency code for the currency valuein this field. In one aspect, the value is undefined when the data typeis anything other than currency.

C. Feed Comment

In some implementations, a comment exists as an item that depends fromfeed tracked updates, posts, status updates, and other items that areindependent of each other. Thus, a feed comment object can exist as achild object of a feed item object. For example, comment table 930 canbe considered a child table of event hifeed tracked update table 910. Inone implementation, a feed comment can be a child of a profile feed,news feed, or entity feed that is separate from other feed items.

In various implementations, a feed comment can have various permissionsfor the following actions. For read permission, a feed comment can bevisible if the parent feed is visible. For create permission, if a userhas access to the feed (which can be tracked by the ID of the parentfeed), the user can add a comment. For delete, only a user with modifyall data permission or a user who added the comment can delete thecomment. Also delete permission can require access on the parent feed.An update of a comment can be restricted, and thus not be allowed.

In one implementation, regarding a query restriction, a feed commentcannot be queried directly, but can be queried only via the parent feed.An example is “select id, parentid, (select . . . from feedcomment) fromentityfeed”. In another implementation, a feed comment can be directlyqueries, e.g., by querying comment table 930. A query could include thetext of a comment or any other column of the table.

In another implementation, regarding soft delete behavior, a feedcomment table does not have a soft delete column. A soft delete allowsan undelete action. In one implementation, a record can have a softdelete. Thus, when the record is deleted, the feed (and its children)can be soft deleted. Therefore, in one aspect, a feed comment cannot beretrieved via the “query” verb (which would retrieve only the comment),but can be retrieved via “queryAll” verb though. An example isqueryAll(“select id, (select id, commentbody from feedcomments) fromaccountfeed where parentid=‘001x000xxx3MkADAA0’”); // where‘001x000xxx3MkADAA0’ has been soft deleted. When a hard delete (aphysical delete) happens, the comment can be hard deleted from thedatabase.

In one implementation, regarding an implicit delete, feeds with commentsare not deleted by a reaper (a routine that performs deletion). Inanother implementation, a user cannot delete a feed. In yet anotherimplementation, upon lead convert (e.g. to an opportunity or contact),the feed items of the lead can be hard deleted. This implementation canbe configured to perform such a deletion for any change in record type.In various implementations, only the comments are hard deleted upon alead convert, other convert, or when the object is deleted (as mentionedabove).

In one implementation, viewing a feed pulls up the most recent messagesor feed tracked updates (e.g. 25) and searches the most recent (e.g. 4)comments for each feed item. The comments can be identified via thecomment table 930. In one implementation, a user can request to see morecomments, e.g., by selecting a see more link.

In some implementations, user feeds and/or entity feeds have a lastcomment date field. In various implementations, the last comment datefield is stored as a field of a record or a user profile. For feeds withno comments, this can be the same as the created date. Whenever a newcomment is created, the associated feed's last comment date can beupdated with the created date of the comment. The last comment date isunchanged if a feed comment is deleted. A use case is to allow people toorder their queries to see the feeds which have been most recentlycommented on.

D. Creating Custom Feeds by Customizing the Event Hifeed Tracked UpdateTable

In some implementations, a tenant (e.g. through an administrator) or aspecific user of a tenant can specify the types of events for which feeditems are created. A user can add more events or remove events from alist of events that get added to the event hifeed tracked update table910. In one implementation, a trigger can be added as a piece of code,rule, or item on a list for adding a custom event to the event hifeedtracked update table 910. These custom events can provide customers theability to create their own custom feeds and custom feed items toaugment or replace implicitly generated feeds via event hifeed trackedupdate table 910. Implicitly generated feed data can be created whenfeed-tracking is enabled for certain entities/field-names. In oneimplementation, in order to override implicit feeds, feed tracking canbe turned off and then triggers can be defined by the user to add eventsto the event hifeed tracked update table 910. In other implementations,users are not allowed to override the default list of events that areadded to table 910, and thus cannot define their own triggers for havingevents tracked.

For example, upon lead convert or case close, a default action to betaken by the system may be to add multiple events to event hifeedtracked update table 910. If a customer (e.g. a tenant or a specificuser) does not want each of these events to show up as feed items, thecustomer can turn off tracking for the entities and generate customfeeds by defining customized triggers (e.g. by using an API) upon theevents. As another example, although data is not changed, a customer maystill want to track an action on a record (e.g. status changes if notalready being tracked, views by certain people, retrieval of data,etc.).

In one implementation, if a user does not want a feed item to begenerated upon every change on a given field, but only if the changeexceeds a certain threshold or range, then such custom feeds can beconditionally generated with the customized triggers. In oneimplementation, the default tracking for the record or user may beturned off for this customization so that the events are onlyconditionally tracked. In another implementation, a trigger can bedefined that deletes events that are not desired, so that defaulttracking can still be turned on for a particular object type. Suchconditional tracking can be used for other events as well.

In some implementations, defining triggers to track certain events canbe done as follows. A user can define an object type to track. Thisobject type can be added to a list of objects that can be tracked for aparticular tenant. The tenant can remove object types from this list aswell. Custom objects and standard objects can be on the list, which may,for example, be stored in cache or RAM of a server or in the database.Generally only one such list exists for a tenant, and users do not haveindividual lists for themselves, although in some implementations, theymay particularly when the number of users in a tenant is small.

In one implementation, a tenant can select which records of an objecttype are to be tracked. In another implementation, once an object typeis added to the tracking list of object types, then all records of thattype are tracked. The tenant can then specify the particulars of how thetracking is to be performed. For example, the tenant can specifytriggers as described above, fields to be tracked, or any of thecustomizations mentioned herein.

In some implementations, when a feed is defined as an object in thedatabase (e.g. as a child object of entity records that can be tracked),a particular instance of the feed object (e.g. for a particular record)can be create-able and delete-able. In one implementation, if a user hasaccess to a record then the user can customize the feed for the record.In one implementation, a record may be locked to prevent customizationof its feed.

One method of creating a custom feed for users of a database systemaccording to implementations is now described. Any of the followingsteps can be performed wholly or partially with the database system, andin particular by one or more processor of the database system.

In step A, one or more criteria specifying which events are to betracked for possible inclusion into a feed to be displayed are receivedfrom a tenant. In step B, data indicative of an event is received. Instep C, the event is analyzed to determine if the criteria aresatisfied. In step D, if the criteria are satisfied, at least a portionof the data is added to a table (e.g. one or more of the tables in FIG.9A) that tracks events for inclusion into at least one feed for a userof the tenant. The feed in which feed items of an event may ultimatelybe displayed can be a news feed, record feed, or a profile feed.

E. Creating Custom Feeds with Filtering

After feed items have been generated, they can be filtered so that onlycertain feed items are displayed, which may be tailored to a specifictenant and/or user. In one implementation, a user can specify changes toa field that meet certain criteria for the feed item to show up in afeed displayed to the user, e.g., a news feed or even an entity feeddisplayed directly to the user. In one implementation, the criteria canbe combined with other factors (e.g. number of feed items in the feed)to determine which feed items to display. For instance, if a smallnumber of feed items exist (e.g. below a threshold), then all of thefeed items may be displayed.

In one implementation, a user can specify the criteria via a query onthe feed items in his/her new feed, and thus a feed may only returnobjects of a certain type, certain types of events, feed tracked updatesabout certain fields, and other criteria mentioned herein. Messages canalso be filtered according to some criteria, which may be specified in aquery. Such an added query can be added onto a standard query that isused to create the news feed for a user. A first user could specify theusers and records that the first user is following in this manner, aswell as identify the specific feed items that the first user wants tofollow. The query could be created through a graphical interface oradded by a user directly in a query language. Other criteria couldinclude receiving only posts directed to a particular user or record, asopposed to other feed items.

In one implementation, the filters can be run by defining code triggers,which run when an event, specific or otherwise, occurs. The triggercould then run to perform the filtering at the time the event occurs orwhen a user (who has certain defined triggers, that is configured for aparticular user) requests a display of the feed. A trigger could searchfor certain terms (e.g. vulgar language) and then remove such terms ornot create the feed item. A trigger can also be used to send the feeditem to a particular person (e.g. an administrator) who does notnormally receive the feed item were it not for the feed item containingthe flagged terms.

F. Access Checks

In one implementation, a user can access a feed of a record if the usercan access the record. The security rules for determining whether a userhas access to a record can be performed in a variety of ways, some ofwhich are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/866,184 byWeissman et al., filed Oct. 2, 2007, titled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FORCONTROLLING ACCESS TO CUSTOM OBJECTS IN A DATABASE”, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes. Forexample, a security level table can specify whether a user can see aparticular type of record and/or particular records. In oneimplementation, a hierarchy of positions within a tenant is used. Forexample, a manager can inherit the access levels of employees that themanager supervises. Field level security (FLS) can also be used todetermine whether a particular feed tracked update about an update to afield can be seen by the user. The field change table 920 can be used toidentify a field name or field ID, and then whether the user has readaccess to that field can be determined from an FLS table. For example,if a user could not see a field of a social security number, the feed ofthe user provided to the user would not include any feed items relatedto the social security number field.

In one implementation, a user can edit a feed of a record if the userhas access to the record, e.g., deleting or editing a feed item. Inanother implementation, a user (besides an administrator) cannot edit afeed item, except for performing an action from which a feed item can becreated. In one implementation, a user is required to have access to aparticular record and field for a feed item to be created based on anaction of the user. In this case, an administrator can be considered tobe a user with MODIFY-ALL-DATA security level. In yet anotherimplementation, a user who created the record can edit the feed.

G. Posts

In one implementation, the text of posts are stored in a child table(post table 950), which can be cross-referenced with event hifeedtracked update table 910. Post table 950 can include event ID 951 (tocross-reference with event ID 911), post text 952 to store the text ofthe post, and time/date 953. An entry in post table 950 can beconsidered a feed post object. Posts for a record can also be subject toaccess checks. In one implementation, if a user can view a record thenall of the posts can be seen, i.e. there is not an additional level ofsecurity check as there is for FLS. In another implementation, anadditional security check could be done, e.g., by checking on whethercertain keywords (or phrases) exist in the post. For instance, a postmay not be not provided to specified users if a certain keyword exists,or only provided to specified users if a keyword exists. In anotherimplementation, a table can exist for status updates.

VIII. Subscribing to Users and Records to Follow

As described above, a user can follow users, groups, and records.Implementations can provide mechanisms for a user to manage which users,groups, and records that the user is currently following. In oneimplementation, a user can be limited to the number of users and records(collectively or separately) that the user can follow. For example, auser may be restricted to only following 10 users and 15 records, or asanother example, 25 total. Alternatively, the user may be permitted tofollow more or less users.

In one implementation, a user can go to a page of a record and thenselect to follow that object (e.g., with a button marked “follow” or“join”). In another implementation, a user can search for a record andhave the matching records show up in a list. The search can includecriteria of records that the user might want to follow. Such criteriacan include the owner, the creation date, last comment date, andnumerical values of particular fields (e.g. an opportunity with a valueof more than $10,000).

A follow button (or other activation object) can then reside next toeach record in the resulting list, and the follow button can be selectedto start following the record. Similarly, a user can go to a profilepage of a user and select to follow the user, or a search for users canprovide a list, where one or more users can be selected for followingfrom the list. The selections of subscribing and unsubscribing can addand delete rows in table 920.

In some implementations, a subscription center acts as a centralizedplace in a database application (e.g. application platform 18) to managewhich records a user subscribes to, and which field updates the userwants to see in feed tracked updates. The subscription center can use asubscription table to keep track of the subscriptions of various users.In one implementation, the subscription center shows a list of all theitems (users and records) a user is subscribed to. In anotherimplementation, a user can unsubscribe to subscribed objects from thesubscription center.

A. Automatic Subscription

In one implementation, an automatic subscription feature can ensure thata user is receiving certain feeds. In this manner, a user does not haveto actively select certain objects to follow. Also, a tenant can ensurethat a user is following objects that the user needs to be following.

In various implementations for automatically following users, a defaultfor small organizations can be to follow everyone. For bigorganizations, the default can be to follow a manager and peers. If auser is a manager, the default can be to follow the manager'ssupervisor, peers, and people that the manager supervises(subordinates). In other implementations for automatically followingrecords, records that the user owns may be automatically followed and/orrecords recently viewed (or changed) may be automatically followed.

In one example, a new record is created. The owner (not necessarily theuser who created the entity) is subscribed to the entity. If ownershipis changed, the new owner may automatically be subscribed to follow theentity. Also, after a lead convert, the user doing the lead convert maybe automatically subscribed to the new account, opportunity, or contactresulting from the lead convert. In one implementation, the autosubscription is controlled by user preference. That is a user or tenantcan have the auto subscribe feature enabled or not. In one aspect, thedefault is to have the auto-subscribe turned on.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart illustrating a method 900 for automaticallysubscribing a user to an object in a database system according toimplementations. Any of the following steps can be performed wholly orpartially with the database system, and in particular by one or moreprocessor of the database system.

In step 901, one or more properties of an object stored in the databasesystem are received. The properties can be received from administratorsof the database system, or from users of the database system (which maybe an administrator of a customer organization). The properties can berecords or users, and can include any of the fields of the object thatare stored in the database system. Examples of properties of a recordinclude: an owner of the record, a user that converted the record fromone record type to another record type, whether the first user hasviewed the record, and a time the first user viewed the record. Examplesof properties of a user include: which organization (tenant) the user isassociated with, the second user's position in the same organization,and which other users the user had e-mailed or worked with on projects.

In step 902, the database system receives one or more criteria aboutwhich users are to automatically follow the object. The criteria can bereceived from administrators of the database system, or from one or moreusers of the database system. The users may be an administrator of acustomer organization, which can set tenant-wide criteria or criteriafor specific users (who may also set the criteria themselves). Examplesof the criteria can include: an owner or creator of a record is tofollow the record, subordinates of an owner or creator of a record areto follow the record, a user is to follow records recently viewed(potentially after a specific number of views), records that a user haschanged values (potentially with a date requirement), records created byothers in a same business group as the user. Examples of the criteriacan also include: a user is to follow his/her manager, the user's peers,other users in the same business group as the user, and other users thatthe user has e-mailed or worked with on a project. The criteria can bespecific to a user or group of users (e.g. users of a tenant).

In step 903, the database system determines whether the one or moreproperties of the object satisfy the one or more criteria for a firstuser. In one implementation, this determination can occur by firstobtaining the criteria and then determining objects that satisfy thecriteria. The determination can occur periodically, at time of creationof an object, or at other times. If different users have differentcriteria, then the criteria for a particular user or group could besearched at the same time. Since users of different tenants normallycannot view objects of another tenant, certain criteria does not have tobe checked. In another implementation, this determination can occur bylooking at certain properties and then identifying any criteria that aremet. In yet another implementation, the criteria and properties can beused to find users that satisfy the criteria.

In step 904, if the criteria are satisfied, the object is associatedwith the first user. The association can be in a list that storesinformation as to what objects are being followed by the first user.User subscription table 940 is an example of such a list. In oneimplementation, the one or more criteria are satisfied if one propertysatisfies at least one criterion. Thus, if the criteria are that a userfollows his/her manager and the object is the user's manager, then thefirst user will follow the object.

In one implementation, a user can also be automatically unsubscribed,e.g. if a certain action happens. The action could be a change in theuser's position within the organization, e.g. a demotion or becoming acontractor. As another example, if a case gets closed, then usersfollowing the case may be automatically unsubscribed.

B. Feed and Subscription API

In one implementation, a feed and subscription center API can enabletenants to provide mechanisms for tracking and creating feed items,e.g., as described above for creating custom feeds by allowing users toadd custom events for tracking. For example, after some initial feeditems are created (e.g. by administrators of the database system),outside groups (e.g. tenants or software providers selling software tothe tenants) can ‘enable objects’ for feeds through a standard API. Thegroups can then integrate into the subscription center and the feedtracked update feeds on their own. In one implementation, the feed andsubscription center API can use a graphical user interface implementedfor the default feed tracking. In one implementation, API examplesinclude subscribing to an entity by creating a new entity subscriptionobject for a particular user ID, or for all users of a tenant (e.g. usersubscription table 940). In one implementation, obtaining allsubscriptions for a given user can be performed by using a query, suchas “select . . . from EntitySubscription where userid=‘ . . . ’”.

Some implementations have restriction on non-admin users, e.g. thosewithout view all data permissions (VAD). One restriction can be a limitclause on entity subscription queries (e.g. queries on user subscriptiontable 940), e.g., where the limit of the number of operations is lessthan 100. In one implementation, users are not required to specify anorder-by, but if an order-by is specified they can only order on fieldson the entity subscription entity. In one implementation, filters onentity subscription can likewise only specify fields on the entitysubscription entity. In one aspect, the object ID being followed can besorted or filtered, but not the object name.

In one implementation, one or more restrictions can also be placed onthe identification of feed items in a feed that a user can access. Forexample, if a low-level user (i.e. user can access few objects) isattempting to see a profile feed of a high level user, a maximum numberof checks (e.g. 500) for access rights may be allowed. Such arestriction can minimize a cost of a feed request. In someimplementations, there are restriction on the type of queries (e.g.fields for filtering) allowed to construct on feeds (e.g. on tables inFIG. 9A).

C. Sharing

As mentioned above, users may be restricted from seeing records fromother tenants, as well as certain records from the tenant to which theuser belongs (e.g. the user's employer). Sharing rules can refer to theaccess rules that restrict a user from seeing records that the user isnot authorized to see or access. Additionally, in one implementation, auser may be restricted to only seeing certain fields of a record,field-level security (FLS).

In an implementation, access rule checks are done upon subscription. Forexample, a user is not allowed to subscribe to a record or type ofrecord that the user cannot access. In one aspect, this can minimize(but not necessarily eliminate) cases where a user subscribes toentities they cannot access. Such cases can slow down news feed queries,when an access check is performed (which can end up removing much of thefeed items). Thus, a minimization of access checks can speed upoperation. In another implementation, when feed items are createddynamically, access rule checks may be done dynamically at the time ofsubsequent access, and not upon subscription or in addition to at timeof subscription.

An example case where access checks are still performed is when a firstuser follows a second user, but the second user performs some actions onrecords or is following records that the first user is not allowed tosee. The first user may be allowed to follow the second user, and thusthe subscription is valid even though the first user may not be able tosee all of the feed items. Before a feed tracked update is provided to anews feed of the first user, a security check may be performed tovalidate whether the first user has access rights to the feed item. Ifnot, the feed item is not displayed to the first user. In oneimplementation, users can be blocked from feed items that containcertain terms, symbols, account numbers, etc. In one implementation, anyuser can follow another user. In another implementation, users may berestricted as to which users, objects, and/or records he/she can follow.

Regarding viewing privileges of a feed, in one implementation, a usercan always see all of his own subscriptions (even if he's lost readaccess to a record). For example, a user can become a contractor, andthen the user may lose access to some records. But, the user may stillsee that he/she is following the object. This can help if there is alimit to the number of objects that can be followed. To unsubscribe auser may need to know what they are following so they can unsubscribeand subscribe to objects the user can see. In another implementation,for access to other people's subscriptions, a user can be required toneed read-access on the record-id to see the subscription. In someimplementations, users with authorization to modify all data cancreate/delete any subscription. In other implementations, a user cancreate/delete subscriptions only for that user, and not anyone else.

D. Configuration of which Field to Follow

There can be various feed settings for which feed items get added toprofile and record feeds, and which get added to news feeds. In oneimplementation, for profile feeds and entity feeds, feed tracked updatescan be written for all standard and custom fields on the supportedobjects. In one implementation, feed settings can be set to limit howmany and which fields of a record are tracked for determining whether afeed tracked update is to be generated. For example, a user oradministrator can choose specific fields to track and/or certain onesnot to track. In another implementation, there is a separate limit forthe number of trackable fields (e.g. 20) for a record. Thus, onlycertain changes may be tracked in an entity hifeed tracked update andshow up in the feed. In yet another implementation, default fields maybe chosen for tracking, where the defaults can be exposed in thesubscriptions center.

IX. Adding Items to a Feed

As described above, a feed includes feed items, which include feedtracked updates and messages, as defined herein. Various feeds can begenerated. For example, a feed can be generated about a record or abouta user. Then, users can view these feeds. A user can separately view afeed of a record or user, e.g., by going to a home page for the user orthe record. As described above, a user can also subscribe (follow) touser or record and receive the feed items of those feeds through aseparate feed application (e.g. in a page or window), which is termed“chatter” in certain examples. The feed application can provide each ofthe feeds that a user is following in a single news feed.

A feed generator can refer to any software program running on aprocessor or a dedicated processor (or combination thereof) that cangenerate feed items (e.g. feed tracked updates or messages) and combinethem into a feed. In one implementation, the feed generator can generatea feed item by receiving a feed tracked update or message, identifyingwhat feeds the item should be added to, and adding the feed. Adding thefeed can include adding additional information (metadata) to the feedtracked update or message (e.g. adding a document, sender of message, adetermined importance, etc.). The feed generator can also check to makesure that no one sees feed tracked updates for data that they don't haveaccess to see (e.g. according to sharing rules). A feed generator canrun at various times to pre-compute feeds or to compute themdynamically, or combinations thereof.

In one implementation, the feed generator can de-dupe events (i.e.prevent duplicates) that may come in from numerous records (and users).For example, since a feed tracked update can be published to multiplefeeds (e.g. John Choe changed the Starbucks Account Status) and a personcan be subscribed to both the Starbucks account and John Choe,implementations can filter out duplicates before adding or displayingthe items in a news feed. Thus, the Feed Generator can collapse eventswith multiple records and users for a single transaction into a singlefeed tracked update and ensure the right number of feed tracked updatesfor the particular feed. In some implementations, an action by a userdoes not create a feed item for that user (e.g. for a profile feed ofthat user), and it is only the feed of the object being acted upon (e.g.updated) for which a feed item is created. Thus, there should not beduplicates. For example, if someone updates the status of a record, thefeed item is only for the record and not the user.

In one implementation, processor 417 in FIG. 4 can identify an eventthat meets criteria for a feed tracked update, and then generate thefeed tracked update. Processor 417 can also identify a message. Forexample, an application interface can have certain mechanisms forsubmitting a message (e.g. “submit” buttons on a profile page, detailpage of a record, “comment” button on post), and use of these mechanismscan be used to identify a message to be added to a table used to createa feed or added directly to a list of feed items ready for display.

A. Adding Items to a Pre-Computed Feed

In some implementations, a feed of feed items is created before a userrequests the feed. Such an implementation can run fast, but have highoverall costs for storage. In one implementation, once a profile feed ora record feed has been created, a feed item (messages and feed trackedupdates) can be added to the feed. The feed can exist in the databasesystem in a variety of ways, such as a related list. The feed caninclude mechanisms to remove items as well as add them.

As described above, a news feed can be an aggregated feed of all therecord feeds and profile feeds to which a user has subscribed. The newsfeed can be provided on the home page of the subscribing user.Therefore, a news feed can be created by and exist for a particularuser. For example, a user can subscribe to receive entity feeds ofcertain records that are of interest to the user, and to receive profilefeeds of people that are of interest (e.g. people on a same team, thatwork for the user, are a boss of the user, etc.). A news feed can tell auser about all the actions across all the records (and people) who haveexplicitly (or implicitly) subscribed to via the subscriptions center(described above).

In one implementation, only one instance of each feed tracked update isshown on a user's news feed, even if the feed tracked update ispublished in multiple entities to which the user is subscribed. In oneaspect, there may be delays in publishing news articles. For example,the delay may be due to queued up messages for asynchronous entityhifeed tracked update persistence. Different feeds may have differentdelays (e.g. delay for new feeds, but none of profile and entity feeds).In another implementation, certain feed tracked updates regarding asubscribed profile feed or an entity feed are not shown because the useris not allowed access, e.g. due to sharing rules (which restrict whichusers can see which data). Also, in one implementation, data of therecord that has been updated (which includes creation) can be providedin the feed (e.g. a file or updated value of a feed can be added as aflash rendition).

Examples are provided below as how it can be determined which feed itemsto add to which news feeds. In one implementation, the addition of itemsto a news feed is driven by the following user. For example, the user'sprofile can be checked to determine objects the user is following, andthe database may be queried to determine updates to these objects. Inanother implementation, the users and records being followed drive theaddition of items to a news feed. Implementations can also combine theseand other aspects. In one implementation, a database system can befollower-driven if the number of subscriptions (users and records theuser is following) is small. For example, since the number subscriptionsare small, then changes to a small number of objects need to be checkedfor the follower.

Regarding implementations that are follower-driven, one implementationcan have a routine run for a particular user. The routine knows theusers and records that the user is following. The routine can poll thedatabase system for new feed tracked updates and messages about theusers and records that are being followed. In one implementation, thepolling can be implemented as queries. In one implementation, theroutine can run at least partially (even wholly) on a user device.

Regarding implementations where a news feed is driven by the record (oruser) being followed, processor 417 can identify followers of the recordafter a feed item is added to the record feed. Processor 417 canretrieve a list of the followers from the database system. The list canbe associated with the record, and can be stored as a related list orother object that is a field or child of the record.

In one implementation, profile and record feeds can be updatedimmediately with a new feed item after an action is taken or an eventoccurs. A news feed can also be updated immediately. In anotherimplementation, a news feed can be updated in batch jobs, which can runat periodic times.

B. Dynamically Generating Feeds

In some implementations, a feed generator can generate the feed itemsdynamically when a user requests to see a particular feed, e.g., aprofile feed, entity feed, or the user's news feed. In oneimplementation, the most recent feed items (e.g. top 50) are generatedfirst. In one aspect, the other feed items can be generated as abackground process, e.g., not synchronously with the request to view thefeed. However, since the background process is likely to complete beforea user gets to the next 50 feed items, the feed generation may appearsynchronous. In another aspect, the most recent feed items may or maynot include comments, e.g., that are tied to feed tracked updates orposts.

In one implementation, the feed generator can query the appropriatesubset of tables shown in FIG. 9A and/or other tables as necessary, togenerate the feed items for display. For example, the feed generator canquery the event hifeed tracked update table 910 for the updates thatoccurred for a particular record. The ID of the particular record can bematched against the ID of the record. In one implementation, changes toa whole set of records can be stored in one table. The feed generatorcan also query for status updates, posts, and comments, each of whichcan be stored in different parts of a record or in separate tables, asshown in FIG. 9A. What gets recorded in the entity hifeed tracked updatetable (as well as what is displayed) can be controlled by a feedsettings page in setup, which can be configurable by an administratorand can be the same for the entire organization, as is described abovefor custom feeds.

In one implementation, there can be two feed generators. For example,one generator can generate the record and profile feeds and anothergenerator can generate news feeds. For the former, the feed generatorcan query identifiers of the record or the user profile. For the latter,the news feed generator can query the subscribed profile feeds andrecord feeds, e.g., user subscription table 940. In one implementation,the feed generator looks at a person's subscription center to decidewhich feeds to query for and return a list of feed items for the user.The list can be de-duped, e.g., by looking at the event number andvalues for the respective table, such as field name or ID, comment ID,or other information.

C. Adding Information to Feed Hifeed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method 1000 for saving information to feedtracking tables according to implementations. In one implementation,some of the steps may be performed regardless of whether a specificevent or part of an event (e.g. only one field of an update is beingtracked) is being tracked. In various implementations, a processor orset of processors (hardwired or programmed) can perform method 1000 andany other method described herein.

In step 1010, data indicative of an event is received. The data may havea particular identifier that specifies the event. For example, there maybe a particular identifier for a field update. In anotherimplementation, the transaction may be investigated for keywordsidentifying the event (e.g., terms in a query indicating a close, changefield, or create operations).

In step 1020, it is determined whether the event is being tracked forinclusion into feed tables. The determination of what is being trackedcan be based on a tenant's configuration as described above. In oneaspect, the event has an actor (person performing an event), and anobject of the event (e.g. record or user profile being changed).

In step 1030, the event is written to an event hifeed tracked updatetable (e.g. table 910). In one implementation, this feed trackingoperation can be performed in the same transaction that performs a saveoperation for updating a record. In another implementation, atransaction includes at least two round-trip database operations, withone round-trip being the database save (write), and the second databaseoperation being the saving of the update in the hifeed tracked updatetable. In one implementation, the event hifeed tracked update table ischronological. In another implementation, if user A posts on user B'sprofile, then user A is under the “created by” 913 and user B is underthe object ID 912.

In step 1040, a field change table (e.g. field change table 920) can beupdated with an entry having the event identifier and fields that werechanged in the update. In one implementation, the field change table isa child table of the event hifeed tracked update table. This table caninclude information about each of the fields that are changed. Forexample, for an event that changes the name and balance for an accountrecord, an entry can have the event identifier, the old and new name,and the old and new balance. Alternatively, each field change can be ina different row with the same event identifier. The field name or ID canalso be included to determine which field the values are associated.

In step 1050, when the event is a post, a post table (e.g. post table950) can be updated with an entry having the event identifier and textof the post. In one implementation, the field change table is a childtable of the event hifeed tracked update table. In anotherimplementation, the text can be identified in the transaction (e.g. aquery command), stripped out, and put into the entry at the appropriatecolumn. The various tables described herein can be combined or separatedin various ways. For example, the post table and the field change tablemay be part of the same table or distinct tables, or may includeoverlapping portions of data.

In step 1060, a comment is received for an event and the comment isadded to a comment table (e.g. comment table 930). The comment could befor a post or an update of a record, from which a feed tracked updatecan be generated for display. In one implementation, the text can beidentified in the transaction (e.g. a query command), stripped out, andput into the entry at the appropriate column.

D. Reading Information from Feed Hifeed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method 1100 for reading a feed item as partof generating a feed for display according to implementations. In oneimplementation, the feed item may be read as part of creating a feed fora record.

In step 1110, a query is received for an event hifeed tracked updatetable (e.g. event hifeed tracked update table 910) for events related toa particular record. In one implementation, the query includes anidentifier of the record for which the feed is being requested. Invarious implementations, the query may be initiated from a detail pageof the record, a home page of a user requesting the record feed, or froma listing of different records (e.g. obtained from a search or frombrowsing).

In step 1120, the user's security level can be checked to determine ifthe user can view the record feed. Typically, a user can view a recordfeed, if the user can access the record. This security check can beperformed in various ways. In one implementation, a first table ischecked to see if the user has a classification (e.g. a security levelthat allows him to view records of the given type). In anotherimplementation, a second table is checked to see if the user is allowedto see the specific record. The first table can be checked before thesecond table, and both tables can be different sections of a same table.If the user has requested the feed from the detail page of the record,one implementation can skip the security level check for the recordsince the check was already done when the user requested to view thedetail page.

In one implementation, a security check is determined upon each requestto view the record feed. Thus, whether or not a feed item is displayedto a user is determined based on access rights, e.g., when the userrequests to see a feed of a record or a news feed of all the objects theuser is following. In this manner, if a user's security changes, a feedautomatically adapts to the user's security level when it is changed. Inanother implementation, a feed can be computed before being requestedand a subsequent security check can be made to determine whether theperson still has access right to view the feed items. The security(access) check may be at the field level, as well as at the recordlevel.

In step 1130, if the user can access the record, a field level securitytable can be checked to determine whether the user can see particularfields. In one implementation, only those fields are displayed to theuser. Alternatively, a subset of those the user has access to isdisplayed. The field level security check may optionally be performed atthe same time and even using the same operation as the record levelcheck. In addition, the record type check may also be performed at thistime. If the user can only see certain fields, then any feed itemsrelated to those fields (e.g. as determined from field change table 920)can be removed from the feed being displayed.

In step 1140, the feed items that the user has access to are displayed.In one implementation, a predetermined number (e.g. 20) of feed itemsare displayed at a time. The method can display the first 20 feed itemsthat are found to be readable, and then determine others while the useris viewing the first 20. In another implementation, the other feed itemsare not determined until the user requests to see them, e.g., byactivating a see more link.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method 1200 for reading a feed item of aprofile feed for display according to implementations. In oneimplementation, the query includes an identifier of the user profilefeed that is being requested. Certain steps may be optional, as is alsotrue for other methods described herein. For example, security checksmay not be performed.

In step 1210, a query is directed to an event hifeed tracked updatetable (e.g. event hifeed tracked update table 910) for events having afirst user as the actor of the event (e.g. creation of an account) or onwhich the event occurred (e.g. a post to the user's profile). In variousimplementations, the query may be initiated by a second user from theuser's profile page, a home page of a user requesting the profile feed(e.g. from a list of users being followed), or from a listing ofdifferent users (e.g. obtained from a search or from browsing). Variousmechanisms for determining aspects of events and obtaining informationfrom tables can be the same across any of the methods described herein.

In step 1220, a security check may also be performed on whether thesecond user can see the first user's profile. In one implementation anyuser can see the profile of another user of the same tenant, and step1220 is optional.

In step 1230, a security (access) check can be performed for the feedtracked updates based on record types, records, and/or fields, as wellsecurity checks for messages. In one implementation, only the feedtracked updates related to records that the person has updated are theones that need security check as the feed items about the user arereadable by any user of the same tenant. Users of other tenants are notnavigable, and thus security can be enforced at a tenant level. Inanother implementation, messages can be checked for keywords or links toa record or field that the second user does not have access.

As users can have different security classifications, it is importantthat a user with a low-level security cannot see changes to records thathave been performed by a user with high-level security. In oneimplementation, each feed item can be checked and then the viewableresults displayed, but this can be inefficient. For example, such asecurity check may take a long time, and the second user would like toget some results sooner rather than later. The following stepsillustrate one implementation of how security might be checked for afirst user that has a lot of feed items, but the second user cannot seemost of them. This implementation can be used for all situations, butcan be effective in the above situation.

In step 1231, a predetermined number of entries are retrieved from theevent hifeed tracked update table (e.g. starting from the most recent,which may be determined from the event identifier). The retrievedentries may just be ones that match the user ID of the query. In oneimplementation, entries are checked to find the entries that areassociated with the user and with a record (i.e. not just posts to theuser account). In another implementation, those entries associated withthe user are allowed to be viewed, e.g. because the second user can seethe profile of the first user as determined in step 1220.

In step 1232, the record identifiers are organized by type and the typeis checked on whether the second user can see the record types. Otherchecks such as whether a record was manually shared (e.g. by the owner)can also be performed. In one implementation, the queries for thedifferent types can be done in parallel.

In step 1233, if a user can see the record type, then a check can beperformed on the specific record. In one implementation, if a user cansee a record type, then the user can see all of the records of thattype, and so this step can be skipped. In another implementation, thesharing model can account for whether a user below the second user (e.g.the second user is a manager) can see the record. In such animplementation, the second user may see such a record. In oneimplementation, if a user cannot see a specific record, then comments onthat record are also not viewable.

In step 1234, field level sharing rules can be used to determine whetherthe second user can see information about an update or value of certainfields. In one implementation, messages can be analyzed to determine ifreference to a particular field name is made. If so, then field levelsecurity can be applied to the messages.

In step 1280, steps 1231-1234 are repeated until a stopping criterion ismet. In one implementation, the stopping criteria may be when a maximumnumber (e.g. 100) of entries that are viewable have been identified. Inanother implementation, the stopping criteria can be that a maximumnumber (e.g. 500) of entries from the entity hifeed tracked update tablehave been analyzed, regardless of whether the entries are viewable ornot.

In one implementation, a news feed can be generated as a combination ofthe profile feeds and the entity feeds, e.g. as described above. In oneimplementation, a list of records and user profiles for the queries insteps 1110 and 1210 can be obtained from user subscription table 940. Inone implementation, there is a maximum number of objects that can befollowed.

In various implementations, the entity hifeed tracked update table canbe queried for any one or more of the following matching variables aspart of determining items for a feed: CreatedDate, CreatedById,CreatedBy.FirstName, CreatedBy.LastName, ParentId, and Parent.Name. Thechild tables can also be queried for any one or more of the followingmatching variables as part of determining items for a feed: DataType,FieldName, OldValue, and NewValue. A query can also specify how theresulting feed items can be sorted for display, e.g., by event number,date, importance, etc. The query can also include a number of items tobe returned, which can be enforced at the server.

The two examples provided above can be done periodically to create thefeeds ahead of time or done dynamically at the time the display of afeed is requested. Such a dynamic calculation can be computationallyintensive for a news feed, particularly if many users and records arebeing followed, although there can be a low demand for storage.Accordingly, one implementation performs some calculations ahead of timeand stores the results in order to create a news feed.

E. Partial Pre-Computing of Items for a Feed

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a method 1300 of storing event information forefficient generation of feed items to display in a feed according toimplementations. In various implementations, method 1300 can beperformed each time an event is written to the events hifeed trackedupdate table, or periodically based on some other criteria (e.g. everyminute, after five updates have been made, etc.).

In step 1310, data indicative of an event is received. The data may bethe same and identified in the same way as described for step 1010. Theevent may be written to an event hifeed tracked update table (e.g. table910).

In step 1320, the object(s) associated with the event are identified. Invarious implementations, the object may be identified by according tovarious criteria, such as the record being changed, the user changingthe record, a user posting a message, and a user whose profile themessage is being posted to.

In step 1330, the users following the event are determined. In oneimplementation, one or more objects that are associated with the eventare used to determine the users following the event. In oneimplementation, a subscription table (e.g. table 940) can be used tofind the identified objects. The entries of the identified objects cancontain an identifier (e.g. user ID 941) of each the users following theobject

In step 1340, the event and the source of the event, e.g., a record (fora record update) or a posting user (for a user-generated post) arewritten to a news feed table along with an event identifier. In oneimplementation, such information is added as a separate entry into thenews feed table along with the event ID. In another implementation, eachof the events for a user is added as a new column for the row of theuser. In yet another implementation, more columns (e.g. columns from theother tables) can be added.

News feed table 960 shows an example of such a table with user ID 961and event ID or pointer 962. The table can be organized in any manner.One difference from event hifeed tracked update table 910 is that oneevent can have multiple entries (one for each subscriber) in the newsfeed table 960. In one implementation, all of the entries for a sameuser are grouped together, e.g., as shown. The user U819 is shown asfollowing events E37 and E90, and thus any of the individual feed itemsresulting from those events. In another implementation, any new entriesare added at the end of the table. Thus, all of the followers for a newevent can be added as a group. In such an implementation, the event IDswould generally be grouped together in the table. Of course, the tablecan be sorted in any suitable manner.

In an implementation, if the number of users is small, then the feeditems in one or more of the tables may be written as part of the samewrite transaction. In one implementation, the determination of smalldepends on the number of updates performed for the event (e.g. a maximumnumber of update operations may be allowed), and if more operations areperformed, then the addition of the feed items is performed. In oneaspect, the number of operations can be counted by the number of rows tobe updated, including the rows of the record (which depends on theupdate event), and the rows of the hifeed tracked update tables, whichcan depend on the number of followers. In another implementation, if thenumber of users is large, the rest of the feed items can be created bybatch. In one implementation, the feed items are always written as partof a different transaction, i.e., by batch job.

In one implementation, security checks can be performed before an entryis added to the news feed table 960. In this manner, security checks canbe performed during batch jobs and may not have to be performed at thetime of requesting a news feed. In one implementation, the event can beanalyzed and if access is not allowed to a feed item of the event, thenan entry is not added. In one aspect, multiple feed items for a sameuser may not result from a same event (e.g. by how an event is definedin table 910), and thus there is no concern about a user missing a feeditem that he/she should be able to view.

In step 1350, a request for a news feed is received from a user. In oneimplementation, the request is obtained when a user navigates to theuser's home page. In another implementation, the user selects a table,link, or other page item that causes the request to be sent.

In step 1360, the news feed table and other tables are accessed toprovide displayable feed items of the news feed. The news feed can thenbe displayed. In one implementation, the news feed table can then bejoined with the event hifeed tracked update table to determine the feeditems. For example, the news feed table 960 can be searched for entrieswith a particular user ID. These entries can be used to identify evententries in event hifeed tracked update table 910, and the properinformation from any child tables can be retrieved. The feed items(e.g., feed tracked updates and messages) can then be generated fordisplay.

In one implementation, the most recent feed items (e.g. 100 most recent)are determined first. The other feed items may then be determined in abatch process. Thus, the feed item that a user is most likely to viewcan come up first, and the user may not recognize that the other feeditems are being done in batch. In one implementation, the most recentfeed items can be gauged by the event identifiers. In anotherimplementation, the feed items with a highest importance level can bedisplayed first. The highest importance being determined by one or morecriteria, such as, who posted the feed item, how recently, how relatedto other feed items, etc.

In one implementation where the user subscription table 940 is used todynamically create a news feed, the query would search the subscriptiontable, and then use the object IDs to search the event hifeed trackedupdate table (one search for each object the user is following). Thus,the query for the news feed can be proportional to the number of objectsthat one was subscribing to. The news feed table allows the intermediatestep of determining the object IDs to be done at an earlier stage sothat the relevant events are already known. Thus, the determination ofthe feed is no longer proportional to the number of object beingfollowed.

In some implementations, a news feed table can include a pointer (asopposed to an event identifier) to the event hifeed tracked update tablefor each event that is being followed by the user. In this manner, theevent entries can immediately be retrieved without having to perform asearch on the event hifeed tracked update table. Security checks can bemade at this time, and the text for the feed tracked updates can begenerated.

X. Display of a Feed

Feeds include messages and feed tracked updates and can show up in manyplaces in an application interface with the database system. In oneimplementation, feeds can be scoped to the context of the page on whichthey are being displayed. For example, how a feed tracked update ispresented can vary depending on which page it is being displayed (e.g.in news feeds, on a detail page of a record, and even based on how theuser ended up at a particular page). In another implementation, only afinite number of feed items are displayed (e.g. 50). In oneimplementation, there can be a limit specifically on the number of feedtracked updates or messages displayed. Alternatively, the limit can beapplied to particular types of feed tracked updates or messages. Forexample, only the most recent changes (e.g. 5 most recent) for a fieldmay be displayed. Also, the number of fields for which changes aredisplayed can also be limited. Such limits can also be placed on profilefeeds and news feeds. In one implementation, feed items may also besubject to certain filtering criteria before being displayed, e.g., asdescribed below.

A. Sharing Rules for Feeds

As mentioned above, a user may not be allowed to see all of the recordsin the database, and not even all of the records of the organization towhich the user belongs. A user can also be restricted from viewingcertain fields of a record that the user is otherwise authorized toview. Accordingly, certain implementations use access rules (also calledsharing rules and field-level security FLS) to ensure that a user doesnot view a feed tracked update or message that the user is notauthorized to see. A feed of a record can be subject to the same accessrules as the parent record.

In one implementation, access rules can be used to prevent subscriptionto a record that the user cannot see. In one implementation, a user cansee a record, but only some of the fields. In such instances, only itemsabout fields that the user can access may be displayed. In anotherimplementation, sharing rules and FLS are applied before a feed item isbeing added to a feed. In another implementation, sharing rules and FLSare applied after a feed item has been added and when the feed is beingdisplayed. When a restriction of display is mentioned, the enforcementof access rules may occur at any stage before display.

In some implementations, the access rules can be enforced when a queryis provided to a record or a user's profile to obtain feed items for anews feed of a user. The access rules can be checked andcross-references with the feed items that are in the feed. Then, thequery can only return feed items for which the user has access.

In other implementations, the access rules can be enforced when a userselects a specific profile feed or record feed. For example, when a userarrives on a home page (or selects a tab to see the record feed), thedatabase system can check to see which feed items the user can see. Insuch an implementation, each feed item can be associated with metadatathat identifies which field the feed item is about. Thus, in oneimplementation, a feed tracked update is not visible unless theassociated record and/or field are visible to the user.

In one example, when a user accesses a feed of a record, an access checkcan be performed to identify whether the user can access the object typeof the record. In one implementation, users are assigned a profile type,and the profile type is cross-referenced (e.g. by checking a table) todetermine whether the profile type of the user can see the object typeof the record.

In some implementations, access to specific records can be checked,e.g., after it has been determined that the user can access the recordtype. Rules can be used to determine the records viewable by a user.Such rules can determine the viewable records as a combination of thoseviewable by profile type, viewable due to a profile hierarchy (e.g. aboss can view records of profile types lower in the hierarchy), andviewable by manual sharing (e.g. as may be done by an owner of arecord). In one implementation, the records viewable by a user can bedetermined beforehand and stored in a table. In one implementation, thetable can be cross-referenced by user (or profile type of a user) toprovide a list of the records that the user can see, and the list can besearched to determine if the record at issue is among the list. Inanother implementation, the table can be cross-referenced by record todetermine a list of the profile types that can access the record, andthe list can be searched to find out if the requesting user is in thelist. In another implementation, the records viewable by a user can bedetermined dynamically at the time of the access check, e.g., byapplying rules to data (such as user profile and hierarchy information)obtained from querying one or more tables.

In other implementations, checks can be made as to whether a user hasaccess to certain fields of a record, e.g., after it has been determinedthat the user can access the record. In one aspect, the access check onfields can be performed on results already obtained from the database,to filter out fields that the user cannot see. In one implementation,the fields associated with retrieved feed items are determined, andthese fields are cross-referenced with an access table that contains thefields accessible by the user (e.g. using the profile type of the user).Such an access table could also be a negative access table by specifyingfields that the user cannot see, as can other access tables mentionedherein. In one implementation, the field level access table is stored incache at a server.

In one implementation, a user can see the same fields across all recordsof a certain type (e.g. as long as the user can see the record). In oneimplementation, there is a field level access table for each objecttype. The access table can be cross-referenced by user (e.g. via profiletype) or field. For example, a field can be identified along with theprofile types that can see the field, and it can be determined whetherthe user's profile type is listed. In another example, the user can befound and the fields to which the user has access can be obtained. Inanother implementation, the accessible fields could be specified foreach record.

Regarding profile feeds and news feeds, a first user may perform anaction on a record, and a feed tracked update may be generated and addedto the first user's profile feed. A second user who is allowed to followthe first user may not have access rights to the record. Thus, the feedtracked update can be excluded from a news feed of the second user, orwhen the second user views the first user's profile feed directly. Inone implementation, if a user is already on the detail page, thenanother access check (at least at the record level) may optionally notbe performed since a check was already done in order to view the detailpage.

In some implementations, for profile feeds and news feeds, the feeditems can be organized by object type. IT can then be determined whetherthe requesting user can access to those object types. Other accesschecks can be done independently or in conjunction with these accesschecks, as is described above.

B. API Implementation

Various implementations can implement the access rules in various ways.In one implementation, all recent feed items (or more generally events)are retrieved from a feed that is ready for display (e.g. after a feedgenerator performs formatting) or a table. Then, bulk sharing checks canbe applied on the retrieved items. The viewable feed items of the mostrecent set can then be displayed.

In another implementation regarding a profile feed, for non-VAD (viewall data) users, i.e. users who can see everything, certain functionscan be overridden. In one implementation, a FROM clause in a query canbe overridden to be a pipelined function, e.g., with different parts ofthe query being operated on at the same time, but with differentoperations of a pipeline. This pipeline function can be given a rowlimit and the maximum number of sharing checks to run. It can loop,selecting the next batch of rows, run sharing checks against them inbulk, and pipe back any IDs which are accessible. In one aspect, innearly all cases, the user feed can contain accessible IDs so thesharing checks can pass on the first loop. However, it is possible thesharing may have changed such that this user's access is greatlyreduced. In one worst case, implementations can run sharing checks on upto the maximum number of sharing check rows (e.g. a default 500) andthen terminate the function with the IDs which passed so far, possiblyzero. Such an example includes a low level person viewing profile feedof CEO.

In some implementations, if the user has a small number of subscriptions(e.g. <25), then implementations can first run sharing checks on thoseIDs and then drive the main query from those accessible IDs, as opposedto a semi-join against the subscription and running sharing checks onthe resulting rows. In other implementations, FLS is enforced bybuilding up a TABLE CAST of the accessible field IDs from the cachedvalues. A main query can then join against this table to filter onlyaccessible fields.

XI. Filtering and Searching Feeds

It can be possible that a user subscribes to many users and records,which can cause a user's news feed to be very long and include many feeditems. In such instances, it can be difficult for the user to read everyfeed item, and thus some important or interesting feed items may not beread. In some implementations, filters may be used to determine whichfeed items are added to a feed or displayed in the feed, even though auser may be authorized to see more than what is displayed. Section VII.Ealso provides a description of filtering based on criteria.

In one implementation, an “interestingness” filter can function as amodule for controlling/recommending which feed tracked updates make itto the news feed when the number of items that a user subscribes to islarge. In one such implementation, a user can specify a filter, which isapplied to a user's news feed or to record and profile feeds that theuser requests. Different filters can be used for each. For example,processing can be done on the news feed to figure out which feed trackedupdates are the most relevant to the user. One implementation can use animportance weight and level/ranking, as described herein. Otherimplementations can include a user specifying keywords for a message andspecifying which records or users are most important.

In one implementation, a filter can be used that only allows certainfeed items to be added to a feed and/or to be displayed as part of afeed. A filter can be used such that the removal or non-addition ofcertain feed items automatically occur for any new feed items after thefilter criteria are entered. The filter criteria can also be addedretroactively. The criteria of such a filter can be applied via a querymechanism as part of adding a feed item to a table or displaying a feed,as described in sections above. In various implementations, a user candirectly write a query or create the query through a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method 1400 for creating a custom feed forusers of a database system using filtering criteria according toimplementations. Any of the following steps can be performed wholly orpartially with the database system, and in particular by one or moreprocessor of the database system.

In step 1410, one or more criteria specifying which feed items are to bedisplayed to a first user are received from a tenant. In oneimplementation, the criteria specifies which items to add to the customfeed. For example, the criteria could specify to only include feed itemsfor certain fields of a record, messages including certain keywords, andother criteria mentioned herein. In another implementation, the criteriaspecifies which items to remove from the custom feed. For example, thecriteria could specify not to include feed items about certain fields orincluding certain keywords.

In step 1420, the database system identifies feed items of one or moreselected objects that match the criteria. The feed items can be storedin the database, e.g., in one or more of the tables of FIG. 9A. In oneimplementation, the one or more selected objects are the objects thatthe first user is following. In another implementation, the one or moreselected objects is a single record whose record feed the first user isrequesting.

In step 1430, the feed items that match the criteria are displayed tothe first user in the custom feed. The generation of text for a feedtracked update can occur after the identification of the feed items(e.g. data for a field change) and before the display of the finalversion of the feed item.

In one implementation, the criteria are received before a feed item iscreated. In another implementation, the criteria are received from thefirst user. In one aspect, the criteria may only be used for determiningfeeds to display to the first user. In yet another implementation, thecriteria are received from a first tenant and applies to all of theusers of the first tenant. Also, in an implementation where a pluralityof criteria are specified, the criteria may be satisfied for a feed itemif one criterion is satisfied.

Some implementations can provide mechanisms to search for feed items ofinterest. For example, the feed items can be searched by keyword, e.g.,as entered by a user. As another example, a tab (or other selectiondevice) can show feed items about or from a particular user. In oneimplementation, only messages (or even just comments) from a particularuser can be selected.

In another implementation, a user can enter search criteria so that thefeed items currently displayed are searched and a new list of matchingfeed items is displayed. A search box can be used to enter keywords.Picklists, menus, or other mechanisms can be used to select searchcriteria. In yet another implementation, feed comments are text-indexedand searchable. Feed comments accessibility and visibility can apply onthe search operation too.

In one implementation, when a user performs a search of feeds, there canbe an implicit filter of the user (e.g., by user ID). This can restrictthe search to only the news feed of the user, and thus to only recordfeeds and profile feeds that the user is subscribed. In anotherimplementation, searches can also be done across feeds of users andrecords that are not being subscribed.

Besides searching for feed items that match a criteria, one also couldsearch for a particular feed item. However, in one implementation, auser cannot directly query a feed item or feed comment. In such animplementation, a user can query to obtain a particular profile orrecord feed, and then navigate to the feed item (e.g. as child of theparent feed). In another implementation, the relationship from a feed toits parent entity (e.g. a record or user profile) is uni-directional.That is a user can navigate from the feed to the parent but not viceversa.

In one implementation, a user can directly query the child tables, e.g.,comment table 930. Thus, a user could search for comments only that userhas made, or comments that contain certain words. In anotherimplementation, a user can search for a profile feed of only one user.In yet another implementation, a user can search for profile feeds ofmultiple users (e.g. by specifying multiple user names or IDs), whichcan be combined into a single feed.

XII. Maintaining Records for Follower's Feeds

If every feed item is stored and maintained on a follower's feed or evenin the profile and/or record feeds, the amount of data to be storedcould be massive, enough to cause storage issues in the system. In oneimplementation, the N (e.g. 50) most recent feed items for each feed arekept. However, there can be a need to keep certain older feed items.Thus, implementations can remove certain feed items, while keepingothers. In other implementations, old feed tracked updates may bearchived in a data store separate from where recent feed items arestored.

In some implementations, feeds are purged by a routine (also called areaper) that can remove items deemed not worthy to keep (e.g. olditems). Any underlying data structures from which feed items are createdcan also be purged. In one implementation, the reaper can remove certainitems when new items are added (e.g. after every 5th item added). Asanother example, feed items may be deleted synchronously during the saveoperation itself. However, this may slow down each save operation. Inone implementation, however, this may be better than incurring a largercost when the items are removed at longer intervals. In anotherimplementation, the reaper can run periodically as a batch process. Suchroutines can ensure that a table size does not become too large. In oneaspect, a reaper routine can keep the event hifeed tracked update tablerelatively small so the sharing checks are not extremely expensive.

In various implementations, the reaper can maintain a minimum number(e.g. 50 or 100) of feed items per record, maintain a minimum number ofrecords per user (e.g. per user ID), and not deleting feed items (orentire records) which have comments against it. Such implementations canensure that the detail page and profile page have sufficient data todisplay in a feed. Note that the sharing checks for feed queries can cutdown the number of records further for users with less access. Thus, thenumber of records finally displayed for specific users can besignificantly less than a minimum number for a specific profile orrecord feed. In one implementation, a reaper deletes data that is olderthan a specified time (e.g. 6 months or a year).

In one implementation, the reaper can perform the deletion of feed items(purging) as a batch up deletion. This can avoid deletion of largenumber of records that may lead to locking issues. In anotherimplementation, the reaper can be run often so that the table does notbecome difficult to manage (e.g. size-wise). In this way the reaper canwork on a limited set of records. In one implementation, the reaper mayhave logic that deletes certain items (e.g. by an identification) fromtables (e.g. those in FIG. 9A), or sections of the tables.

XIII. Selecting Updates to Associated Records to Publish on anInformation Feed

Some implementations disclosed herein provide for creating one or moreuser account contexts in association with a user account. In someimplementations, a user account context may act as a role or view for auser account. For example, a particular user may be a team leader of asoftware development team, a department manager, and a member of asocial group within an organization. In some cases, the user may wish toview information updates from the perspective of one of these roles. Forinstance, the user may wish to see updates specific to the team leaderrole when the user is acting in the role of team leader (e.g., updatesto the project, changes to support documents, etc.). However, when theuser is attending to department management responsibilities, the usermay wish to see management-related updates such as changes to humanresources policies, updates to a company-wide calendar, and other suchgeneral information.

In some implementations, a user account context may help to manage alarge volume of information updates. For example, a user may follow morethan 100 other users, may follow more than 200 database records, and maybe a member of more than 20 groups of users. By dividing these itemsinto different user account contexts, the user may view the updatesgenerated in association with these items in a topical, contextual way.That is, instead of viewing all of the updates in an undifferentiatedinformation feed, the user may view different feeds that each correspondto a different role occupied by the user. For example, the user mayestablish one user account context corresponding to the user's personalconnections within a social network. The user may also establish anotheruser account context corresponding to the user's day-to-day managementresponsibilities. The user may establish yet another user accountcontext corresponding to a special project. Then, the user may selectone of these user account contexts to view the updates corresponding tothat context.

In some implementations, a user may select particular items to followwith a particular user account context. For example, the user may createa software development context that follows and/or prioritizes itemsrelated to the software development role, and a department managementcontext that follows and/or prioritizes items related to the departmentmanagement role. When the user views an information feed, the user mayselect the context from which to view the information feed. Then, theitems may be displayed in the information feed in accordance with theselected context.

In some implementations, different user account contexts may reflectdifferent prioritization of information updates retrieved and presentedin an information feed for a user account. For example, when a firstuser account context is selected, a particular update may be displayedat the top of a feed, while when a second user account context isselected, the same update may be displayed toward the bottom of a feed.As another example, information updates generated by a user's supervisormay be displayed prominently when a “professional” user account contextis selected, while such information updates may be deemphasized when a“personal” user account context is selected.

In some implementations, selection of different user account contextsmay result in different information updates being selected for displayin an information feed. For example, information updates generated by auser's supervisor may be selected for display in an information feedwhen a “professional” user account context is selected, while suchinformation updates may not be selected for display when a “personal”user account context is selected.

In some implementations, an aggregated user account context may includeother user account contexts. When the aggregated user account context isselected, information updates selected in accordance with the useraccount contexts included within the aggregated user account context maybe selected for display. For example, a user may have a “work-related”user account context that includes several user account contextsassociated with different work-related roles filled by the user, such asa “project manager” user account context, a “Java developer” useraccount context, and a “hiring committee member” user account context.

In some implementations, a user interface for viewing an informationfeed created in accordance with a user account context may be generatedfor display on a display device. For example, the user interface may bedisplayed in a web browser at a client machine. The user interface mayallow a user to select a user account context from a list of useraccount contexts for generating an information feed. Alternately, oradditionally, different user account contexts may be displayed ondifferent tabs.

In some implementations, a user interface for creating or editing a useraccount context may be generated for display on a display device. Theuser interface may allow the identification of items or parameters forretrieving information updates for display in an information feed. Theitems or parameters may be identified by a user via a list, adrag-and-drop mechanism, a search tool, or any other selection oridentification mechanism.

In some implementations, a user account context may be associated withvarious types of criteria or parameters for retrieving informationupdates for presentation in an information feed. In a first example,information updates that include a particular hash tag such as “#legal”may be retrieved. In a second example, information updates that arerelated to an identified user account or database record may beretrieved. In a third example, information updates associated withcomments posted by the user account associated with the user accountcontext may be retrieved. In a fourth example, information updatescreated by a particular user account and including a particular textstring may be retrieved. The types of criteria and parameters that maybe used to select information updates for display in connection with auser account context may be strategically selected based on factors suchas the features of the social networking system in which the useraccount context is created, the types of information updates in whichusers may be interested, and technical considerations regarding thestorage and retrieval of information updates.

In some implementations, a user may identify other user accounts thatare permitted or prohibited from viewing information posts created inassociation with the user account. For example, a user may create apersonal user account context and identify certain user accounts aspermitted or prohibited. Then, the user may select the personal useraccount context when creating a post within the social networkingsystem. Because the post is created in association with the personaluser account context, the post will be accessible to other user accountsonly in accordance with the permissions associated with the personaluser account context. That is, user accounts permitted to view updatescreated within the personal user account context will be able to viewthe update, while user accounts prohibited from viewing updates createdwithin the personal user account context will not be able to view theupdate.

In some implementations, a security model may restrict the presentationof information updates generated in association with a user accountcontext. For example, the security model may allow information updatesgenerated in association with a user account context to be displayedonly for user accounts indicated as permitted by the user accountcontext. As another example, the security model may allow informationupdates generated in association with a user account context to bedisplayed for any user accounts not indicated as restricted by the useraccount context. In some implementations, the security model may belimited to certain types of information updates, such as wall posts.

In some implementations, permission to view a particular informationupdate may be determined by membership in a group. For example, a useraccount context may identify a particular group as having permission toview information updates generated in association with the user accountcontext. In this case, any user account that is a member of the groupmay view the information updates.

In some implementations, information related to user account contextsand information updates may be stored in a database. For example, anidentifier may be stored in association with an information update toidentify the user account context under which the information update iscreated. Alternately, or additionally, a separate table linkinginformation updates with user account contexts may be maintained. Thestored information may be retrieved when an information feed isgenerated so as to enforce privacy permissions associated with the useraccount context.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a method 1500 for creating a user accountcontext according to one or more implementations. In someimplementations, the method 1500 may be used to identify, determine, orprovide information for creating the user account context. The acquiredinformation may be stored on a storage medium for later retrieval whenposting updates or displaying an information feed in association withthe user account context.

A method for displaying an information feed according to the useraccount context created via the method 1500 is discussed with respect tothe method 1600 shown in FIG. 16. A method for creating an informationpost in accordance with the user account context created via the method1500 is discussed with respect to the method 1700 shown in FIG. 17. Insome implementations, the methods 1500, 1600, and 1700 may be performedat a server configured to provide social networking services or at aclient in communication with the server.

At 1502, a request to create a user account context for a user accountis received. In some implementations, the request may be received from auser. For example, a user may initiate a request to create the useraccount context at a configuration screen associated with the useraccount. In some implementations, the request may be generatedautomatically. For example, a new user creating a user account may beprovided with a user interface for generating a user account context.

At 1504, one or more items to follow within the user account context maybe identified. In some implementations, the identified items may be usedto retrieve feed items for display in an information feed associatedwith the user account context. For example, if the identified itemsinclude a data record, then updates associated with the data record mayappear in an information feed associated with the user account context.

In some implementations, the items identified at operation 1504 mayinclude any items that may be followed within the social networkingsystem. For example, the items identified may include, but are notlimited to: database records, user accounts, user account contexts,groups of user accounts, publication locations (e.g., libraries),network addresses, and entities.

In some implementations, items identified at operation 1504 may bedirectly specified. For example, an identifier associated with adatabase record or a user account may be provided.

In some implementations, items identified at operation 1504 may beidentified by use of a filter or classification. For example, the itemsmay include all user accounts within a particular group of useraccounts. As another example, the items may include all database recordshaving a particular set of characteristics.

In some implementations, the operation 1504 may be used to identifyindividual updates rather than items. For example, a string such as“@FirstName.LastName” may be provided. Then, all updates that includethe provided string may appear in an information feed associated withthe user account context.

In some implementations, items identified at operation 1504 may includeitems already associated with the user account. For example, a list ofitems associated with the user account may be provided, and the user mayselect items from the list to associated the selected items with theuser account context.

In some implementations, items identified at operation 1504 may includeitems not already associated with the user account. For example, theuser may be able to search for or select items not already associatedwith the user account. Once the user has located these new items, theuser may associate them with the user account context, the user accountas a whole, or both.

In some implementations, once a user account context is created, theuser account context may be updated on the fly with new items to follow.For instance, a user may be logged in under a first user account andchoose to follow a second user account or object. In this case, the usermay be presented with a user account context selection interface thatallows the user to select a user account context to which to add thesecond user account or data record. In a first example, the user accountcontext selection interface may include a drop down button that appearswhen the second user account or object is selected for following. In asecond example, the user account context selection interface may includea prompt that is displayed after second user account or object isfollowed. In a third example, the user account context selectioninterface may include a second button (other than a “follow” button)called, for instance, “contextualize,” which also results in followingthe second user account or object. The “contextualize” button may promptthe user to add the second user account or data record to a context viaa drop-down menu, picklist, text box, or some other selection mechanism.

At 1506, prioritization information for updates associated with theidentified items is determined. In some implementations, some or all ofthe items identified at operation 1504 may be assigned prioritizationinformation. The prioritization information for a particular item mayaffect the display of updates associated with that item within aninformation feed.

In some implementations, updates associated with higher priority itemsmay be emphasized over updates associated with lower priority items. Forexample, updates associated with higher priority items may appear beforeupdates associated with lower priority items. As another example, if thenumber of updates exceeds a threshold value, then some lower priorityupdates may not be shown. As yet another example, updates associatedwith higher priority items may be displayed using a coloration or othervisual style more noticeable than that used with updates associated withlower priority items.

In some implementations, any technique for prioritizing updatesassociated with followed items may be used. For example, items may beassigned numerical weights or ranks. As another example, items may beassigned priority classes, such as high priority, medium priority, andlow priority.

In some implementations, prioritization information may be determinedfor any or all of the items identified in 1504. In some cases, not allitems may be assigned prioritization information. For example, someitems may be assigned a relatively high priority and other items may beassigned a relatively low priority, while the remaining items areassigned a default priority level.

At 1508, one or more user accounts restricted from viewing informationupdates associated with the user account context are identified. In someimplementations, a user may choose to restrict other accounts fromviewing information updates generated from within a particular useraccount context in order to restrict certain users from viewing certaintypes of information. For example, a user may create one user accountcontext for posting information regarding work. In this case, the usermay wish to restrict friends from viewing information posted under thework-related user account context. The user may also create a personaluser account context for posting information regarding personal matters.The user may wish to restrict colleagues from viewing information postedunder the personal user account context.

In some implementations, when a user account is restricted from viewinginformation updates associated with the user account context, then anupdate generated by a user when the user account context is selected maynot appear at all for a user logged in under a restricted user account.Alternately, information identifying the existence of a post or updatemay be displayed, but the user may be restricted from viewing thecontent of the information. In this case, the user may be presented withan explanatory message such as “Access to this posting is limited to themembers of the software development team.”

In some implementations, a user may select user accounts restricted fromviewing information updates associated with the user account context byselecting the user accounts from a list, searching for the useraccounts, identifying categories or filters for user accounts (e.g., anyuser account with an @workplace.com e-mail address, any user accounttagged as “family,” etc.), or via any other selection mechanism.

At 1510, one or more user accounts permitted to view information updatesassociated with the user account context are identified. In someimplementations, information updates generated by a user when the useraccount context is selected may be hidden from other user accounts notidentified at operation 1510. For example, a user may create a “family”user account context. In this case, the only user accounts permitted toview information updates generated by the user account context may bethose user accounts identified by the user as being in the “family”group. As a different example, a user may create a “sales team” useraccount context. In this case, only members of the sales team,identified at operation 1510, may be permitted to access the informationupdates generated in association with the user account context.

In some implementations, the selection of user accounts permitted toview information updates may be performed in a manner similar to thatused to select user accounts restricted from viewing such informationupdates, as discussed with respect to operation 1508.

In some implementations, one or both of the operations 1508 and 1510 maynot be performed. For example, the user account context may beconfigured such that any user account not identified as restricted at1508 is permitted to view information updates generated in associationwith the user account context. As another example, the user accountcontext may be configured such that any user account not identified aspermitted at 1510 is restricted from viewing information updatesgenerated in association with the user account context. As yet anotherexample, the user account context may be configured such that any otheruser accounts may view information updates generated in association withthe user account context.

At 1512, information describing the user account context is stored. Insome implementations, the information stored at 1512 may include theitems identified at 1504, the prioritization information identified at1506, the restricted user accounts identified at 1508, the permitteduser accounts identified at 1510, and any other information used tocreate the user account context.

In some implementations, the information stored at 1512 may be stored ina database, such as the multitenant database discussed with respect toFIGS. 1A-2B. Alternately, the information may be stored as a text file,as a comma separated value (CSV) file, or as any other type ofstructured or unstructured data file. The information may be stored onany one or more storage media accessible to the system.

In some implementations, any of the operations shown in FIG. 15 may beperformed at least in part based on user input. For example, a user maytransmit a request to create user account context, identify items tofollow, provide prioritization information for updates associated withthe follow items, specify user accounts restricted from viewinginformation updates associated with the user account context, specifyuser accounts permitted to view information updates associated with theuser account context, and/or indicate a method or location for storingthe information describing the user account context.

In some implementations, any of the operations shown in FIG. 15 may beperformed at least in part based on automatic determinations made by thesystem itself. In a first example, the system may automatically create auser account context for a user based on a determination that the useris assigned a particular role within an organization. In a secondexample, an automatically created context may be associated with certaindefault items to follow. In a third example, some items mayautomatically be assigned a higher priority than other items based on apredetermined importance or significance value. In a fourth example,some user accounts may be automatically permitted to view or restrictedfrom viewing certain automatically created user account contexts. In afifth example, information describing a user account context mayautomatically be stored in a designated storage location, such as adatabase table.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method 1600 for viewing a user accountcontext according to one or more implementations. In someimplementations, the method 1600 may be used to receive and process arequest to view an information feed. The information feed may be viewedthrough the lens of a selected user account context. The user accountcontext may affect the updates selected for display in the informationfeed, the presentation of the selected updates, or both.

At 1602, a request to view an information feed is received. In someimplementations, the request to view the information feed may bereceived from a user logged in under a user account within the socialnetworking system and/or a business feed system. For example, the usermay navigate to a web page that provides a view of the information feed.As another example, the user may transmit a request to view theinformation feed from a mobile device.

At 1604, a user account context for creating the information feed isidentified. In some implementations, a user may select a user accountcontext via a menu, list, button, or some other selection mechanism. Theuser account context may be selected before, during, or after therequest to view the information feed is received.

In some implementations, the user account context may be automaticallyidentified. For example, the system may determine that a “professional”user account context should be applied during working hours, while a“personal” user account context should be applied during non-workinghours. As another example, the system may determine that a“professional” user account context should be applied when a globalpositioning system (GPS) indicator on a user's mobile device returns alocation near the user's workplace, while a “personal” user accountcontext should be applied when the GPS indicator returns a locationoutside the workplace.

At 1606, items followed within the user account context are identified.In some implementations, the items identified at operation 1606 mayinclude the items identified at operation 1504 shown in FIG. 15. Forexample, the items identified may include one or more database records,user accounts, publication locations, or any other items that may befollowed within the social networking system.

In some implementations, one or more selection criteria may also beidentified at operation 1606. The selection criteria may be used toidentify updates directly rather than identifying updates associatedwith specific items. For example, the selection criteria may includehash tags, search strings, search parameters, or other mechanisms foridentifying information updates to display.

At 1608, information updates associated with the identified items areretrieved. In some implementations, the information updates may beretrieved as described with respect to the FIGS. 3-14. The informationupdates may be selected based on various criteria, including creationdate, access control permissions, and importance rankings Theinformation updates may include any updates associated with the followeditems identified at 1606 as well as any updates identified via criteriasuch as search parameters, string values, or hash tags.

At 1610, prioritization information for the identified items within theuser account context is restricted. In some implementations, theprioritization information retrieved at 1610 may include theprioritization information determined at operation 1504 shown in FIG.15.

In some implementations, the prioritization information may be used todetermine a ranking or weight for information updates associated withthe items followed within the user account context. Updates associatedwith relatively higher priority items may be displayed more prominentlythan updates associated with relatively lower priority items.

At 1612, information updates are selected and prioritized from theretrieved information updates. In some implementations, not allinformation updates retrieved may be displayed. For example, theinformation feed may have room for only a limited number of informationupdates. In this case, the information updates included in theinformation feed may be selected based at least in part on theprioritization information retrieved at operation 1610. For example,information updates associated with higher priority items may bedisplayed, while information updates associated with lower priorityitems may not be displayed.

In some implementations, other types of information may be used toselect information updates for display. For example, some types ofinformation updates may be flagged as having a relatively high priorityirrespective of the priority information updates associated with theuser account context. These higher priority updates may be selected fordisplay even if they might not otherwise be selected according to theprioritization information associated with the user account context.

In some implementations, the selected information updates may bearranged in accordance with the prioritization information. For example,higher priority updates may be displayed first. As another example,higher priority updates may be displayed with a emphasized visualpresentation such as being shown in a bright color, a larger font, orsurrounded by a border. As yet another example, lower priority updatesmay be displayed with a deemphasized visual presentation, such asappearing in a lighter color or being hidden unless a user clicks on abutton.

At 1614, the selected and prioritized information updates are displayedin an information feed. In some implementations, the information feedmay be transmitted from a server to a client machine such as a laptopcomputer, desktop computer, or mobile device. The information feed maybe displayed in a user interface on a display screen.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a method 1700 for publishing an informationupdate within a user account context according to one or moreimplementations. In some implementations, the method 1700 may beperformed when publishing an information update.

In some implementations, the method 1700 may be used to ensure that theprivacy permissions associated with the user account context may beenforced. For example, the user account context may be associated withpermission indicating that certain user accounts are permitted to viewinformation updates generated in association with the user accountcontext. As another example, the user account context may be associatedwith permissions indicating that certain user accounts are prohibitedfrom viewing information updates generated in association with the useraccount context.

At 1702, a request to publish an information update is received. In someimplementations, the request to publish the information update may bereceived at a server configured to provide social networking servicesvia a network. The request to publish the information update may includeor identify information such as the content of the information updateand an item with which the information update is associated. Forinstance, a user may post a comment regarding a particular databaserecord.

At 1704, a user account context for publishing the information update isidentified. In some implementations, the user account context may beselected by the user. For example, the user may be logged in to thesocial networking system under a user account. The user may select auser account context associated with the user account by indicating theuser account context via a button, menu, or other selection mechanism.

In some implementations, the user account context may be automaticallydetermined by the system. For instance, the user may indicate thatinformation updates regarding certain designated database recordscreated in association with the user account should be created within aparticular user account context. In one such example, a user may createa user account context for a project manager role. Then, the user mayindicate that any information updates, such as feed posts or comments,made by the user to the project management database record for theproject should be posted under the project manager user account context.In this way, the user may not need to explicitly select a user accountcontext in order to create a new information update.

At 1706, one or more user accounts restricted from viewing informationupdates associated with the user account context are identified. In someimplementations, the user accounts identified at operation 1706 mayinclude some or all of the user accounts identified at operation 1508shown in FIG. 15.

At 1708, one or more user accounts permitted to view information updatesassociated with the user account context are identified. In someimplementations, the user accounts identified at operation 1708 mayinclude some or all of the user accounts identified at operation 1510shown in FIG. 15.

At 1710, the information update is published to an information feed. Insome implementations, publishing the information update may includestoring information describing the information update in a storagelocation such as a database system. Also, references to the informationupdate may be added to one or more feeds tables in the database system.

In some implementations, an information feed including one or moreupdates may be generated and displayed, as described for example withrespect to FIG. 16. The information update published at operation 1710may be displayed in such an information feed.

In some implementations, the information update is published at 1710 inaccordance with the identified user account permissions andrestrictions. The identified user account permissions and restrictionsmay be stored such that they are retrievable by the system when aninformation feed is generated. Then, the information update may or maynot be displayed in the information feed, depending on the user accountpermissions associated with the information update.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a method 1800 for generating an informationfeed according to one or more implementations. In some implementations,the method 1800 may be performed at a server configured to providesocial networking services via a network. The method 1800 may beperformed in order to generate an information feed that includes one ormore information updates generated in association with a user accountcontext.

In some implementations, as discussed with respect to FIGS. 15-17, auser account context may be associated with permissions information. Thepermissions information may identify other user accounts that arepermitted to view updates created in association with the user accountcontext. Alternately, or additionally, the permissions information mayidentify other user accounts that are prohibited from viewing updatescreated in association with the user account context.

At 1802, a request to view an information feed is received. In someimplementations, the receipt of the request at 1802 may be substantiallysimilar to the receipt of a request to view an information feeddescripted with respect to operation 1602 shown in FIG. 16.

At 1804, a user account associated with the information feed request isidentified. In some implementations, a user may be logged in to a socialnetworking system under a particular user account. An identifier forthis user account may be stored in a cookie in the user's web browser orin a storage location accessible to the server. The user account may beused to identify the user's data, preferences, roles, affiliations, andother personal information.

At 1806, an information update is identified as a candidate for displayin the information feed. As discussed throughout the application, usersmay follow other users as well as items such as database records.Information updates related to these users and items may be displayed inan information feed accessible via a network. Various techniques may beused to identify information updates as candidates for display in thisinformation feed. For instance, the system may identify users and itemsfollowed by the user account and then determine whether any newinformation updates are associated with these users and records. Asanother example, the system may analyze new information updates todetermine whether any updates meet a filter or other criterionassociated with the user account.

In some implementations, not all information updates identified ascandidates for display may actually be displayed in the informationfeed. For instance, the information feed may be configured to display amaximum number of updates, and updates in excess of this number may notbe displayed. As another example, the information feed may be configuredto display only updates that meet a threshold importance ranking. As yetanother example, the system may determine that some updates identifiedas candidates for display may not be displayed due to access controls orprivacy permissions.

In some implementations, information updates may be identified ascandidates for display and analyzed sequentially, as shown in FIG. 18.Alternately, or additionally, at least some information updates may beidentified as a group, such as via a database query.

At 1808, a user account context associated with the identifiedinformation update is identified. As discussed with respect to FIG. 17,an information update created by a user account may be associated with aparticular user account context. The user account context may beidentified by accessing an identifier for the user account contextstored in association with the information update identified atoperation 1806.

At 1810, permissions information associated with the identified useraccount context is identified. In some implementations, the user accountcontext may specify permissions information identifying other useraccounts that are allowed or are not allowed to view information updatescreated in association with the user account context. This informationmay be stored on a storage medium such that it can be accessed via anidentifier associated with the user account context, as discussed withrespect to FIG. 15.

At 1812, a determination is made as to whether the identified useraccount is permitted to view information updates created in associationwith the identified user account context. In some implementations, thedetermination made at 1812 may be performed by comparing the useraccount identified at operation 1804 with the permissions informationidentified at operation 1810.

At 1814, the identified information update is not published in theinformation feed if the user account does not have permission to viewthe identified information update. For example, the user account may beidentified at operation 1508 shown in FIG. 15 as being prohibited viewinformation updates created in association with the user accountcontext. As another example, the user account context may be associatedwith a setting indicating that only user accounts explicitly identifiedas permitted to view information updates created in association with theuser account context may view such updates. In this case, the useraccount may not be identified at operation 1510 shown in FIG. 15 ashaving permission to view information updates created in associationwith the user account context.

At 1816, the identified information update is displayed in theinformation feed if the user account has permission to view theidentified information update. For example, the user account may beidentified at operation 1510 as permitted to view information updatescreated in association with the user account context. As anotherexample, the user account context may be associated with a settingindicating that any user account not explicitly identified as prohibitedfrom viewing updates may view such updates. In this case, the useraccount may not be identified at operation 1508 as being prohibited fromviewing information updates created in association with the user accountcontext.

At 1818, a determination is made as to whether to retrieve additionalinformation updates for presentation in the information feed. In someimplementations, as discussed with respect to operation 1806, theinformation feed may display all updates identified as candidates fordisplay. Alternately, the information feed may display only some of theidentified updates. Various techniques for selecting information updatesare described, for example, with respect to FIGS. 3-14.

The specific details of the specific aspects of implementations of thepresent invention may be combined in any suitable manner withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of implementations of the invention.However, other implementations of the invention may be directed tospecific implementations relating to each individual aspect, or specificcombinations of these individual aspects.

While examples of the present invention are often described herein withreference to an implementation in which an on-demand enterprise servicesenvironment is implemented in a system having an application serverproviding a front end for an on-demand database service capable ofsupporting multiple tenants, the present invention is not limited tomulti-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers.Implementations may be practiced using other database architectures,i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scopeof the implementations claimed.

It should be understood that implementations of the present invention asdescribed above can be implemented in the form of control logic usinghardware and/or using computer software in a modular or integratedmanner. Other ways and/or methods to implement the present invention arepossible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the software components or functions described in thisapplication may be implemented as software code to be executed by aprocessor using any suitable computer language such as, for example,Java, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-orientedtechniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructionsor commands on a computer readable medium for storage and/ortransmission, suitable media include random access memory (RAM), a readonly memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppydisk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digitalversatile disk), flash memory, and the like. The computer readablemedium may be any combination of such storage or transmission devices.Computer readable media encoded with the software/program code may bepackaged with a compatible device or provided separately from otherdevices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer readable mediummay reside on or within a single computer program product (e.g. a harddrive or an entire computer system), and may be present on or withindifferent computer program products within a system or network. Acomputer system may include a monitor, printer, or other suitabledisplay for providing any of the results mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

1. A method comprising: receiving a selection input indicating a firstone of a plurality of user account contexts associated with a useraccount in a feed system, wherein the first one of a plurality of useraccount contexts is associated with a set of feed items stored in thefeed system; and determining, based on the selection input indicatingthe first one of a plurality of user account contexts, one or morecandidate feed items for presentation in an information feed, theinformation feed capable of being displayed on a display device.
 2. Themethod recited in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of user accountcontexts is associated with a respective one or more selection criteriafor selecting feed items to display in an information feed associatedwith the user account.
 3. The method recited in claim 2, whereindetermining the one or more candidate feed items comprises: comparingthe one or more feed items stored in the feed system with a firstselection criterion associated with the first user account context. 4.The method recited in claim 3, wherein the first selection criteriaspecifies one or more data records within the feed system.
 5. The methodrecited in claim 3, wherein the first selection criteria specifies oneor more user accounts within the feed system.
 6. The method recited inclaim 1, the method further comprising: selecting one or more of thecandidate feed items for presentation in the information feed.
 7. Themethod recited in claim 6, the method further comprising: identifyingprioritization information associated with the first user accountcontext, the prioritization information providing a relative importanceranking for at least some of the selected feed items.
 8. The methodrecited in claim 7, the method further comprising: determining anordering of the one or more candidate feed items based on the identifiedprioritization information.
 9. The method recited in claim 1, whereinthe first user account context has associated update permissioninformation, the update permission information identifying one or moreuser accounts permitted to access information feed items created inassociation with the first user account context.
 10. The method recitedin claim 1, wherein the first user account context has associatedtherewith update prohibition information, the update prohibitioninformation identifying one or more user accounts prohibited fromaccessing feed items created in association with the first user accountcontext.
 11. The method recited in claim 1, wherein access to the feedsystem is provided via an on-demand computing services environment, andwherein the feed system comprises a social network specific to anorganization.
 12. A computing system comprising: one or more computingdevices configured to: receive a selection input indicating a first oneof a plurality of user account contexts associated with a user accountin a feed system, wherein the first one of a plurality of user accountcontexts is associated with a set of feed items stored in the feedsystem; and determine, based on the selection input indicating the firstone of a plurality of user account contexts, one or more candidate feeditems for presentation in an information feed, the information feedcapable of being displayed on a display device.
 13. The computing systemrecited in claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of user accountcontexts is associated with a respective one or more selection criteriafor selecting feed items to display in an information feed associatedwith the user account.
 14. The computing system recited in claim 13,wherein determining the one or more candidate feed items comprises:comparing the one or more feed items stored in the feed system with afirst selection criterion associated with the first user accountcontext.
 15. The computing system recited in claim 14, wherein the firstselection criteria specifies one or more data records within the feedsystem.
 16. The computing system recited in claim 14, wherein the firstselection criteria specifies one or more user accounts within the feedsystem.
 17. The computing system recited in claim 12, the one or morecomputing devices further configured to: select one or more of thecandidate feed items for presentation in the information feed.
 18. Thecomputing system recited in claim 17, the one or more computing devicesfurther configured to: identify prioritization information associatedwith the first user account context, the prioritization informationproviding a relative importance ranking for at least some of theselected feed items.
 19. The computing system recited in claim 18, theone or more computing devices further configured to: determine anordering of the one or more candidate feed items based on the identifiedprioritization information.
 20. The computing system recited in claim12, wherein the first user account context has associated updatepermission information, the update permission information identifyingone or more user accounts permitted to access information feed itemscreated in association with the first user account context.
 21. One ormore computer readable media having instructions stored thereon forperforming a method, the method comprising: receiving a selection inputindicating a first one of a plurality of user account contextsassociated with a user account in a feed system, wherein the first oneof a plurality of user account contexts is associated with a set of feeditems stored in the feed system; and determining, based on the selectioninput indicating the first one of a plurality of user account contexts,one or more candidate feed items for presentation in an informationfeed, the information feed capable of being displayed on a displaydevice.
 22. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 21,wherein each of the plurality of user account contexts is associatedwith a respective one or more selection criteria for selecting feeditems to display in an information feed associated with the useraccount.
 23. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim22, wherein determining the one or more candidate feed items comprises:comparing the one or more feed items stored in the feed system with afirst selection criterion associated with the first user accountcontext.
 24. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim23, wherein the first selection criteria specifies one or more datarecords within the feed system.
 25. The one or more computer readablemedia recited in claim 23, wherein the first selection criteriaspecifies one or more user accounts within the feed system.